Heavy rain lashed large parts of southern Germany, causing severe traffic disruptions transport hubs and forced some of the residents of the affected areas to be evacuated by helicopter, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
Authorities in the Bavarian district of Augsburg said a levee and dam also failed, prompting separate evacuation operations.
Due to the floods, train services between the Bavarian state capital Munich, the Austrian city of Bregenz and the Swiss city of Zurich were cancelled. The route between Ulm and Augsburg was also affected, and trains between Stuttgart and Munich were diverted.
In the Bavarian town of Fischach, west of Munich, a helicopter was used to rescue people from their homes after the river Schmuter burst its banks. According to police, boats and rescue teams were also sent to help get people out of flooded houses. Several neighboring counties declared a state of emergency as rain continued late into the day and water levels continued to rise.
In the state of Baden-Württemberg, west of Bavaria, the situation worsened suddenly after the Rotum River began to overflow, inundating several villages. In the city of Rheinstetten, 150 rescue workers worked for more than 22 hours to stop the incoming water from a broken dam wall, Mayor Philip Bürkle announced.
According to him, firefighters from the surrounding area pumped water from the basements and handed out sandbags. So far, only one home for the elderly has been evacuated, in which there were 15 people.
About 55 kilometers to the north, authorities in the resort town of Wiesenstein ordered residents to boil water before consumption after floods overwhelmed the local water supply.
To the south, near Lake Constance, a school in the village of Meckenbeuren, Baden-Württemberg, had to be evacuated when water from the local river broke through the sandbag barriers arranged around it.
The German Meteorological Service is predicting further thunderstorms and up to 80 liters of rain per square meter in the southern regions of Germany. The storms will probably continue tomorrow, DPA notes.