Houses collapse, scores dead and hundreds missing in Germany floods
- Over 100 dead, many unaccounted for as flood catastrophe hits Germany
- The death toll is expected to rise further as more houses collapsed, while in Belgium at least 14 had died
Entire communities lay in ruins after swollen rivers swept through towns and villages in the western German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, Belgium as well as the Netherlands.
“It was so terrible, we couldn’t help anyone. People were waving out of the windows,” Frank Thel, a resident of Schuld, said in front of a pile of rubble in the Rhineland-Palatinate town, where several buildings had collapsed.
In Germany alone, 103 people have died in what is the country’s worst mass loss of life in years. Twelve of the dead were residents of a home for disabled people in Sinzig south of Cologne who were surprised by the flash floods during the night.
The death toll is expected to rise further as more houses collapsed, while in Belgium, media said at least 14 had died.
03:11
At least 59 killed by floods in Germany after record rainfall lashes western Europe
Some 114,000 households in Germany were without power and mobile phone networks collapsed in some flooded regions, which meant that family and friends were unable to track down their loved ones.