Flash floods hit Germany, Europe death toll at 183

O Police say more bodies may be found as water recedes

BERLIN: Flash floods hit southern Germany yesterday, killing at least one person and adding to the flooding devastation that has claimed the lives of more than 180 people in Europe in recent days.

The Berchtesgadener Land district in Bavaria, which borders Austria, became the latest region to be hit by record rainfall and ensuing floods.

Yesterday’s fatality brought Germany’s death toll to 156 in its worst natural disaster in six decades, and the European toll to 183.

About 110 people have been killed in the worst-hit Ahrweiler district south of Cologne.

More bodies are expected to be found there as the flood waters recede, police say.

The European floods, which began on Wednesday, have mainly hit the German states of Rhineland Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia as well as parts of Belgium.

Entire communities have been cut off, without power or communications.

At least 45 people have died in North Rhine-Westphalia while the death toll in Belgium stood at 27.

Scientists have long said that climate change will lead to heavier downpours.

But determining its role in these relentless rainfalls will take several weeks to research at least, said scientists on Friday.

In Belgium, which will hold a national day of mourning tomorrow, water levels were falling yesterday and a clean-up operation was underway.

The military was sent in to the eastern town of Pepinster, where a dozen buildings have collapsed, to search for victims.

Tens of thousands are without electricity and Belgian authorities said the supply of clean drinking water was also a big concern.

Emergency services in the Netherlands remained on alert as water levels are still high throughout the southern province of Limburg where tens of thousands of people have been evacuated.

In Hallein, an Austrian town near Salzburg, powerful flood waters tore through the town centre on Saturday evening as the Salzach river burst its banks, but no injuries were reported.

Meanwhile, Indian officials said yesterday at least 30 people died in three Mumbai suburbs after several houses collapsed when heavy rain triggered landslides.

Forecasts of further downpours could force authorities to relocate people living in danger zones.

Rescuers resorted to using their hands to dig up the ground in an attempt to find survivors as authorities said more people could be trapped inside the debris.

Emergency workers carried the injured through narrow lanes on makeshift stretchers.

Several areas of Mumbai have been hit by floods due to heavy rainfall over the past 24 hours, crippling India’s financial capital.

Within the last 24 hours, authorities have reported 11 incidents of houses or walls collapsing in the Mumbai area, officials said.