Four dead in floods in southern Germany

BERLIN -- At least four people have died in heavy flooding in southern Germany, local police said on Monday. The floods follow exceptionally heavy rainfall, causing widespread evacuations and a state of emergency in several districts.

A firefighter died Sunday when rescuing residents trapped by flood waters near Pfaffenhofen in Bavaria. A a boat carrying the 42-year-old man and three other emergency workers capsized.

Meanwhile, a 43-year-old woman from Schrobenhausen in Upper Bavaria who had been missing since Sunday was discovered dead in the cellar of a house on Monday. Later Monday, in Schorndorf, Baden-Wuerttemberg, emergency services recovered two bodies from a cellar.

Around 3,000 people in Bavaria had to be evacuated due to the floods, authorities said on Sunday.

The German rail operator Deutsche Bahn advised against traveling to flood areas on Monday, since rail traffic has been severely impacted in parts of southern Germany. A high-speed train carrying 185 passengers derailed on Saturday due to a landslide, although no one was injured.

The upper part of the Rhine River, an important route for transporting goods, has been closed to inland shipping in order to prevent waves causing damage to neighboring houses. Several locations in Bavaria have reported burst dams on smaller rivers.

On Monday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser visited Reichertshofen in Bavaria, which was badly affected by the floods. Scholz promised help to those affected.

"We can see here what we as humans must never forget: the forces of nature are big, they are strong and they can cause great destruction," Scholz said. He thanked the numerous people who have been working in many places in southern Germany "trying to prevent the worst."

"Emergency services, both volunteers and full-time staff, risk their lives in the flood areas to save people," Economics Minister and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said in a statement. "We should always be grateful that these people exist."

Habeck also called for more efforts to be made to protect the climate. "Curbing CO2 emissions so that we have enough time to adapt should not be trivialized or pushed aside, but is a top priority," Habeck said during a visit to Reichertshofen on Sunday. The frequency of natural disasters is a clear indicator that nature and the climate are changing, as record floods now occur "every few years," he added.

In 2021, major flooding hit parts of Europe, killing almost 200 people in Germany. Climate change is considered to play a major role in disasters of this kind.

Meanwhile, the weather situation in the affected regions remains tense. The German Meteorological Service (DWD) has warned of "lively showers and thunderstorms or heavy continuous rain in places" over the course of the day.