Berlin: At least 21 killed with many more missing or awaiting rescue as heavy rain and floods caused the collapse of buildings in the western German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North-Rhine Westphalia.
This morning the Rhineland-Palatinate police announced that 70 people were missing as a result of six houses collapsing.
Malu Dreyer, the Rhineland-Palatinate’s state premier said that what happened is “truly devastating”.
The full extent of the damage is still unclear as many villages were cut off by floodwater and landslides that made roads impassable.
Bernd Mehlig, a German environment official, said that such a weather condition was unusual, especially in summer.
The floods were brought down by 148 litres of rain per square metre within two days, and this has happened in a part of Germany that usually sees around 80 litres only in the entirety of July, the Guardian news reported.
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