Chancellor Olaf Scholz has 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 Bavarian Premier Markus Söder, the chancellor was on the ground on Monday to gain an impression of the situation 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.
"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.
Bodies of missing woman, couple found
Rescue workers 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 sought since Sunday, a police spokesman said on Monday.
In neighbouring Baden-Württemberg state, firefighters recovered two bodies after pumping water from a flooded cellar in the town of Schorndorf in Rems-Murr district, police told dpa in Stuttgart on Monday.
The exact circumstances of the deaths are still unclear.
In a statement, police described the deceased as a man and a woman. However, the identities of the two have not been confirmed.
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.
Evacuations in Bavaria
Authorities in Upper Bavaria ordered residents in houses along the Amper river near Moosburg to leave their homes on Monday after a dam burst, municipal officials.
About a dozen people had to leave their homes on Monday. An asylum-seekers' hostel had to be evacuated on Sunday.
According to district officials, water levels of the Amper river reached record highs on Monday.
On Monday morning, the water level at Inkofen was 3.98 metres - the previous high from 1994 was 3.66 metres.
Officials said that the very high water level will persist for some time. The water is not expected to go down until Tuesday morning at the earliest.
The focus in Bavaria shifted eastwards, with emergencies declared in Regensburg on the Danube and Rosenheim to the south-east of Munich. "We can see that the floods are shifting," Söder said, pointing to Regensburg.
Houses evacuated in Regensburg
A row of houses in the centre of the city of Regensburg was to be evacuated from 9 pm (1900 GMT) on Monday. Around 200 people are affected, a spokeswoman said. There is an immediate danger "that the flood protection elements will no longer hold, will suddenly fail and the road will be flooded," she said.
A sports hall is available as emergency accommodation.
Authorities warn another dam could burst
In Asbach-Bäumenheim in Baden-Württemberg, a dam is threatening to burst and flood the district of Hamlar.
"People are being asked to leave the area in Hamlar immediately, as it is to be feared that Hamlar will be surrounded by water," the district office in Donauwörth said on Monday afternoon.
The authorities had already issued a similar warning for two other places in the Donau-Ries district, Heißesheim and Auchsesheim, in the morning and also asked people to leave their homes.
In Baden-Württemberg, which lies to the west of Bavaria, the situation eased in some areas, with the authorities lifting the emergency and allowing residents to return to their homes.
But state Premier Winfried Kretschmann warned that flooding events could become more frequent. The veteran Green politician attributed this to climate change.
Danube passenger boat evacuated
A passenger boat was evacuated in Deggendorf in Lower Bavaria due to flooding on the Danube River.
More than 140 people have been taken off the ship since midday, a spokeswoman for the district administration said on Monday.
The ship is currently unable to continue its journey. The tourists from the United States, Britain and Australia had been stranded since Sunday.
The passengers were taken to Munich airport by bus to start their early journey home from there. Most of them were elderly people, the statement continued. There was no medical emergency on board.
Schools and rail connections affected
Many schools in flood-hit areas in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria cancelled in-person classes for Monday, and daycare centres and special needs centres also remain closed.
The storm damage also affected transport. Rail operator Deutsche Bahn continues to advise against travelling to southern Germany. Some services on long-distance routes were cancelled.
More rain expected
Heavy rains and flooding across Germany's two southernmost 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 few 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 members of the emergency services have been in constant action since 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.
