BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - The death toll from Monday‘s floods in eastern Slovakia has risen to 34 with around 40 people still missing, Slovak Interior Minister Gustáv Krajči told Markíza television on Wednesday. Several rivers swollen by heavy rains burst their banks late on Monday, sending torrents of muddy water gushing through at least 20 villages and gypsy encampments. Krajči estimated damage at up to 1.5 billion Slovak crowns ($43 million). The Interior Ministry said most of the dead were children and that many were from the mainly gypsy village of Jarovnice, devastated when the Mala Svinka river burst its bankss. Rescue workers, using dogs, struggled through thick mud throughout Wednesday to dig out bodies and reach the ruins of flattened houses. Despite forecasts of scattered showers and even storms in eastern Slovakia, the weather was warm and fairly clear by early evening.