German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited the southern German region of Upper Bavaria which is grappling with heavy flooding as rescue workers continue to search for the missing.
Together with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Bavaria's State Premier Markus Söder, the chancellor wanted to gain an impression of the situation on the ground in the market town of Reichertshofen, which was flooded by masses of water the day before.
Scholz promises solidarity
Scholz assured those affected of his solidarity. Solidarity is "what we need most as people," he said during his visit to the region.
"We will do everything we can, including with the possibilities offered by the federal government, to ensure that help can be provided more quickly."
Speaking to local politicians, Faeser expressed her shock at the death of a firefighter in a flood operation: "It's really terrible what happened," she said on Monday. "It shows just how dangerous these operations are."
Faeser added she was impressed by how well the emergency services worked together.
Her impression was "that lessons have been learnt from the Ahr Valley, that coordination and cooperation work much better," she said, referring to heavy flooding in Germany's Ahr valley in July 2021, in which over 180 people were killed and many thousands lost their homes.
Body of missing woman found
Rescue workers have discovered a body in the cellar of a house in the southern German state of Bavaria, which was badly affected by flooding.
It was a missing 43-year-old woman who had been searched for since Sunday, a police spokesman said on Monday.
One firefighter was killed on Sunday after his rubber dinghy capsized in the Bavarian town of Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, which lies some 40 kilometres north of Munich.
The firefighter still missing had been on a rubber dinghy near the Bavarian municipality of Offingen, some 100 kilometres north-west of Munich, when the boat capsized early on Sunday morning. Four other rescue workers on board were able to pull themselves to safety.
Rescue forces continue to search for the firefighter who went missing during a rescue operation. "The search will continue," a police spokesman said on Monday morning.
More rain expected
Heavy rains and flooding across two states caused disruption throughout the weekend and more rain was set to come, the weather service said.
Thousands of people were evacuated over the past days and more were set to leave their homes as southern Germany was pounded by severe rainfall causing rivers to swell.
Tens of thousands of emergency services have been in constant action as of Friday evening, particularly in the Upper Bavaria and Swabia regions, building sandbag dams, pumping water, cordoning off danger zones and rescuing people from flooded homes.
Several villages along the Danube and Schmutter rivers were evacuated as an official pointed to concerns about a dam on Sunday evening.
Early on Monday, the German Meteorological Service (DWD) lifted all existing severe weather warnings but said that showers with the potential for heavy rain were still expected in some areas, particularly in southern Germany.
