People look at the flooding Seine river, in Paris, Friday June 3, 2016. Both the Louvre and Orsay museums were closed as the Seine, which officials said was at its highest level in nearly 35 years, was expected to peak sometime later Friday. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
People look at the flooding Seine river, in Paris, Friday June 3, 2016. Both the Louvre and Orsay museums were closed as the Seine, which officials said was at its highest level in nearly 35 years, was expected to peak sometime later Friday. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Credit: Thibault Camus

Paris — The swollen Seine River kept rising Friday, spilling into Paris streets and forcing one landmark after another to shut down as it surged to its highest levels in nearly 35 years. Across the city, museums, parks and cemeteries shut down as the city braced for evacuations.

The Seine was expected to peak in Paris early today at 16 feet, 3 inches above normal. Authorities shut the Louvre museum, the national library, the Orsay museum and the Grand Palais, Paris’ striking glass-and-steel topped exhibition center.

“We evaluate the situation for all the (cultural) buildings nearly hour-by-hour,” said Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay, speaking to journalists outside the world-famous Louvre. “We don’t know yet the evolution of the level of the Seine River in Paris.”

At the Louvre, home to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” curators were scrambling to move some 250,000 artworks from basement storage areas at risk of flooding to safer areas upstairs. The Louvre will stay closed through Tuesday and the Orsay Museum, known for its impressionist art, closed through the weekend.

Nearly a week of heavy rain has led to serious flooding across a swathe of Europe, leaving 16 people dead and others missing.

Although the rain has tapered off in some areas, floodwaters are still climbing and could take weeks to clear and authorities urged vigilance. Traffic in the French capital was snarled as flooding choked roads and several Paris railway stations shut down.

Basements and apartments in the capital’s well-to-do 16th district began to flood Friday as the river crept higher, and authorities evacuated a campground in the Bois de Boulogne park on the western edge of the city.

French authorities activated preliminary plans to transfer the French presidency and other sensitive sites to secure places in case of flooding. The SGDSN security agency says the National Assembly, or lower house of Parliament, and the Foreign Ministry were at greater risk.

The Louvre said the museum had not taken such precautions in its modern history – since its 1993 renovation at the very least. Disappointed tourists were being turned away but most were understanding.

“It’s good that they are evacuating the paintings. It’s a shame that we couldn’t see them today, but it’s right that they do these things,” said Carlos Santiago, visiting from Mexico.

Elsewhere in Europe, authorities were counting the cost of the floods as they waded through muddy streets and waterlogged homes.

German authorities said the body of a 65-year-old man was found in the town of Simbach am Inn and a 72-year-old man died of a heart attack after being rescued from a raging stream in the village of Triftern, bringing the country’s death toll from recent flooding to 11.

France’s Interior Ministry also reported the death of a 74-year-old man who fell from his horse and drowned in a river in the Seine-et-Marne region east of Paris, the second death in France.

The Environment Ministry predicted the river would reach its highest level early Saturday and stay there for a few days.

Extreme rainfall, such as that hitting France, has increased worldwide and especially in Europe because of man-made climate change, four different scientists told The Associated Press on Friday. They said downpours like this are one of the clearest signals of global warming.