At least 120 dead as Europe is stricken by floods linked to climate change
At least 120 people have perished and hundreds remain missing after extreme weather linked to climate change ravaged much of western Europe.
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In Germany, which is experiencing its worst floods in living memory, emergency crews were working to find those lost in what the Bild daily called the “flood of death”.
The country's toll was by far the highest, reaching at least 103, with the North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate hardest hit.
Entire communities were lost after torrential rains ravaged towns and villages, washing away homes and triggering landslides.
"I fear that we will only see the full extent of the disaster in the coming days," Chancellor Angela Merkel said from Washington, where she pledged full support for the victims.
NEW 🚨 About 60 dead, dozens missing, thousands out of power after devastating floods in Germany
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) July 15, 2021
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Armin Laschet, the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia state, blamed the devastating weather on global warming.
"We will be faced with such events over and over, and that means we need to speed up climate protection measures ... because climate change isn't confined to one state," he said.
Among the worst hit areas is Ahrweiler county, south of Cologne, where a state of emergency has been declared.
Environmentalists in North Rhine-Westphalia said severe flooding in the region were the result of failed policies by state lawmakers.
“The catastrophic results of the heavy rain in the past few days are largely homemade,” Holger Sticht, of Friends of the Earth Germany, told local media.
“We urgently need to change course.”
'Ongoing danger'
Meanwhile Belgium's death toll reached 22, with the army deployed to four of the country's 10 provinces to help with rescue and evacuations.
With homes under water since Wednesday, people from resort town Spa were being put up in tents.
Officials warned that communities in both Germany and Belgium were "still in danger", with the death toll expected to rise.
Some areas remain cut off as emergency crews work to reach those missing, while a dam near the countries' border was at risk of collapse.
Record rainfall also devastated other parts of of western Europe as the wet continued on Friday, with torrential rains hitting Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and France.
Thousands of people were evacuated in the Maastricht, in the Netherlands as flood water rose to dangerous levels.
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