FRANKFURT, Jan 6 (Reuters) - The Yamal-Europe pipeline, which usually sends Russian gas west into Europe, was flowing east from Germany to Poland for a 17th successive day, with flows rising sharply early on Thursday, data from German network operator Gascade showed.

Eastbound volumes stood at 7.5 million kilowatt hours an hour (kWh/h), up from 1.7 million on Wednesday evening and just over 1 million overnight, data from the Mallnow metering point on the German-Polish border showed.

European gas prices have risen on Yamal's reverse flow, which has sparked concerns about winter supply in Europe, and on political tensions.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Jason Neely)