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VILNIUS - Tens of thousands of people in Lithuania were without electricity or water Wednesday, and dozens were evacuated from their homes following days of heavy rain and strong winds in the Baltic country.

Some 30,000 people throughout the country were without electricity, local energy distribution companies said. The hardest hit regions were near Alytus in the south of the country and the capital Vilnius, where thousands of inhabitants were also without water.

Authorities in the country's southeastern Salcininkai region declared an emergency and began evacuating inhabitants after two rivers burst their banks, the Baltic News Service agency reported.

We have never seen such an event, even in our worst dreams,

said Leonardas Talmontas, an official from Salcininkai. Heavy rains have battered Lithuania since Monday. Some 90 millimetres, or the equivalent of the monthly average for rainfall, has soaked Lithuania in the past few days.