Germany and Belgium floods: at least 90 dead and hundreds missing
At least 80 people have died and hundreds more are unaccounted for in Germany and Belgium after days of heavy rain caused the worst flooding in western Europe for decades.
Cars were upended, houses destroyed and people stranded on rooftops as rivers in western Germany burst their banks following record rainfall. Mobile phone networks and internet connections are also down in flood-stricken regions, leaving family and friends unable to contact their loved ones.
On Friday morning, German media reported at least 81 people had died in the two worst-hit states, Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, with 50 and at least 30 deaths respectively. The village of Schuld in Rhineland-Palatinate, which has a population of 700, was almost entirely destroyed.
The death toll in Germany is thought to have been the highest from a flood since the North Sea storm surge of 1962, in which 340 people died.
Belgium and the Netherlands are also badly affected, with further flooding in Luxembourg and Switzerland. According to local media reports, there have been at least 12 deaths in Belgium.
Some 15,000 police, soldiers and emergency service workers are searching for hundreds of people reported missing in the floods. Helicopters are being used to rescue people from rooftops and tanks have cleared roads of fallen trees and debris.
Angela Merkel, the Chancellor, interrupted her visit to the US to say she had been “shaken” by the disaster and to express sympathy for the families of the dead and missing.
Speaking during a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington DC, she pledged government support with rescue efforts and reconstruction, telling the German people that the government “will not leave you alone in this difficult, terrible hour”.
Malu Dreyer, chief minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, said: “We have never seen a catastrophe like this before. It’s truly devastating.”
More heavy rain is forecast across the region on Friday and officials have warned that communities in both countries “are still in danger” following Thursday’s catastrophe.