Angela Merkel has said she would not leave her people “alone with their suffering” as the heavy flood’s death toll grew to over a hundred - Germany’s worst mass loss of life in years.
Around 1,300 people are still missing in the Ahrweiler district, south of Cologne, after record rainfall caused rivers to burst their banks, which turned streams and streets into raging torrents, sweeping away cars, caravans and causing buildings to collapse.
At least 93 people were confirmed on Friday to have died in Germany with more than 1,000 people reported missing. Belgium has also reported at least 11 dead.
The high number of missing was thought to be due to mobile phone networks collapsing which means that family and friends were unable to track down their loved ones.
Regional interior minister Roger Lewentz told broadcaster SWR: “We believe there are still 40, 50 or 60 people missing, and when you haven’t heard for people for such a long time ... you have to fear the worst.”
“The number of victims will likely keep rising in the coming days.”
Entire communities lay in ruins after swollen rivers swept through towns and villages in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.
On Friday morning, houses collapsed in Erftstadt near Cologne, and rescue crews were struggling to help residents who had returned to their houses despite the warnings, the Cologne district government said on Facebook.
Speaking at the White House during a trip to Washington, Merkel called it a day “characterised by fear, by despair, by suffering, and hundreds of thousands of people all of a sudden were faced with catastrophe”.
“My empathy and my heart goes out to all of those who in this catastrophe lost their loved ones, or who are still worrying about the fate of people still missing,” she said, noting many people in Luxembourg and the Netherlands were also suffering.
“I fear we will only see the full extent of this tragedy in the coming days,” she said. She also pledged government support with rescue efforts and with reconstruction, saying to the German people that the government “will not leave you alone in this difficult, terrible hour”.
Among the worst-hit German villages was Schuld, where several homes collapsed and dozens of people remained unaccounted for. Dozens of people had to be rescued from the roofs of their houses with inflatable boats and helicopters.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said the federal government aimed to provide financial support for the affected regions as quickly as possible.
In Belgium, the Vesdre River spilled over its banks and sent water churning through the streets of Pepinster, near Liege, where a rescue operation by firefighters went wrong when a small boat capsized and three elderly people disappeared.
The Netherlands were also badly affected, with further flooding in Luxembourg and Switzerland.
