At least 44 people are dead and dozens missing as two days of continuous, heavy rain in western Germany causes massive floods and travel chaos.
Flash floods hit cities across Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany’s most populous state, turning streets into rivers and causing houses to collapse.
Further heavy rain and storms are forecast for Thursday and Germany’s weather service said more heavy rain could be expected by the end of the day.
Eighteen people died and dozens were missing around the wine-growing region of Ahrweiler, police said, after the Ahr river that flows into the Rhine rose and brought down half a dozen houses.
Another 15 people died in the Euskirchen region south of the city of Bonn, authorities said. In Belgium, two men died due to the torrential rain and a 15-year-old girl was missing after being swept away by a swollen river.
Hundreds of soldiers were helping police with the rescue efforts in Germany, using tanks to clear roads of landslides and fallen trees, while helicopters winched those stranded on rooftops to safety.
In addition to the fatalities in the Euskirchen region, another nine people, including two firefighters, died elsewhere in NRW.
Local broadcaster SWR reported that rescue workers are struggling to reach five people trapped in a house that is surrounded with flood water.
The floods have caused Germany’s worst mass loss of life in years.
Flooding in 2002 killed 21 people in eastern Germany and over 100 across the wider central European region.
