Residents in the German state of Bavaria are still on alert as severe floods hit the southern region of the country.
Water levels remained high on Wednesday, especially in eastern Bavaria along the Danube, although there were initial slight decreases.
In the neighbouring state of Baden-Württemberg, on the other hand, water levels were slowly returning to normal.
In the past few days, several places in southern Germany have seen the kind of rainfall that they statistically see only every 50 to 100 years.
A fourth flood victim was found in Bavaria on Wednesday. The 79-year-old woman's body was discovered in a canal in the Swabia region on Wednesday. She had been reported missing on Sunday.
The discovery brought the total number of deaths in the floods in southern Germany to six.
The search for a missing firefighter in western Bavaria continued on Wednesday, police said. The young man had capsized in a water rescue boat in Offingen on Saturday night.
There is still hope that he will be found alive, said the police spokesman. "But the chances are getting a little slimmer by the day."
The Flood Information Service (HND) said the level of the River Danube in the area was still over 6 metres - normally it is around 3 metres.
On Tuesday evening, the emergency services evacuated around 30 houses along a road by the river because the subsoil was continuing to soften due to the high groundwater level.
The stabilization of the protective walls will continue to be the focus of disaster control on Wednesday, the spokeswoman said. "That is our weak point."
In Passau near the border with Austria and the Czech Republic, the water levels on the Danube and the River Inn slowly fell on Wednesday.
