Edge's News: Several feared dead and dozens missing in Germany due to severe rainfall.

At least 19 people have died and dozens of people are missing in Germany after heavy flooding turned streams and streets into raging torrents, sweeping away cars and causing some buildings to collapse. 

Authorities in the western county of Euskirchen said Thursday that eight deaths had been reported there in connection with the floods. 

Rescue operations were hampered by the fact that phone and internet connections were down in part of the region, which is southwest of Cologne. Police in the western city of Koblenz said four people had died in Ahrweiler county, and about 50 were trapped on the roofs of their houses awaiting rescue.

Six houses had collapsed overnight in the village of Schuld. “Many people have been reported missing to us,” police said.

Schuld is located in the Eifel, a volcanic region of rolling hills and small valleys southwest of Cologne.

The full extent of the damage in the region was still unclear after many villages were cut off by floodwater and landslides that made roads impassable. Videos posted on social media showed cars floating down streets and houses partly collapsed in some places.

#Starkregen #Hochwasser #Überschwemmungen in Stolberg bei Aachen pic.twitter.com/gL3AMDF7Z4

— melina (@tuppesgadse) July 14, 2021

 

🌧 Terribles images montrant l'ampleur dramatique des inondations à Theux en province de Liège en Belgique. Il va encore pleuvoir toute la nuit. (© Christelle Jeanpierre) pic.twitter.com/hrj6zrf4JX

— Météo Express (@MeteoExpress) July 14, 2021

Authorities have declared an emergency in the region after days of heavy rainfall that also affected large parts of western and central Germany, as well as neighbouring countries, causing widespread damage.

Police said four people died in separate incidents after their basements were flooded in Cologne, Kamen and Wuppertal, where authorities warned that a dam threatened to burst.

Authorities in the Rhine-Sieg county south of Cologne ordered the evacuation of several villages below the Steinbachtal reservoir amid fears the dam there could also break.

A fireman drowned Wednesday during rescue work in the western German town of Altena and another collapsed during rescue operations at a power plant in Werdohl-Elverlingsen. One man was missing in the eastern town of Joehstadt after disappearing while trying to secure his property from rising waters, authorities said.

Rail connections were suspended in large parts of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany's most populous state. Governor Armin Laschet, who is running to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in this fall's German election, was expected to visit the flood-hit city of Hagen later Thursday.