Oxford, Abingdon, Windsor Among British Towns At Risk As Flooding Spreads - AFP

The fate of more English cities, towns and villages hung in the balance Tuesday as emergency crews built up defences against rising waters during Britain's worst floods in living memory. Queen Elizabeth II said she was "shocked and deeply concerned" by the floods across central and western England in a message of support to the hundreds of thousands of people affected by them, aides at Buckingham Palace said.

The floods produced images of the town of Tewkesbury turned into an island, a helmeted rescuer carrying a baby in a blanket, an elderly woman winched from her home by a military helicopter and people wading through thigh-high waters.

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Besides large swathes of England that have been submerged since Friday, a rising Thames River threatened the London commuter town of Reading, the royal castle city of Windsor and Henley, famous for a rowing regatta. Some flooding in those towns "may be unavoidable" as river levels peak in the next day or two, Environment Minister Hilary Benn told the House of Commons in an update on the crisis. "An evacuation centre has been prepared in Reading," he added. "This emergency is still not over and the River Thames continues to cause concern," he said.

However, the capital London was probably too far downstream to see a massive surge, an Environment Agency spokesman told AFP. The city of Oxford and nearby Abingdon could still suffer worse flooding as as rivel levels could rise further, he said.

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