Fully filled cellars, an evacuated retirement home, motorists trapped by masses of water: Heavy rain has led to states of emergency and numerous fire services in some regions of Germany.

While the situation initially calmed down in some places on Wednesday, North Rhine-Westphalia in particular was still badly affected, especially the state capital Düsseldorf and Hagen in the Ruhr area.

North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul spoke of an "extremely difficult situation" in some regions of the state.

"The further development is currently not foreseeable with certainty," said the CDU politician of the German press agency.

According to the German Weather Service (DWD), the low "Bernd" will bring heavy rainfall in some regions of Germany in the coming days.

Collapsed roof in Würselen

The city of Düsseldorf asked residents in the Grafenberg district to leave their apartments on Wednesday due to the threat of flooding.

The city announced on Wednesday that around 350 buildings in the Ostparkiedlung were particularly affected by the rising floods in the northern Düssel.

A care center was set up for the residents.

In heavy rain, the flat roof of a retail store in a shopping center in Würselen near Aachen collapsed on Wednesday. An injured person was able to save himself, the city said. "Presumably the roof did not withstand the masses of water." The area had been searched with rescue dogs, but no other people were discovered in the building.

A retirement home with 76 residents in Hagen was evacuated due to the inflow of water. "The retirement home is very badly affected and has become uninhabitable," said a city spokesman. Parents were asked not to send their children to daycare and not to use the holiday care at the primary schools. A buried person was rescued with minor injuries. Several drivers were released from their cars, which were trapped by water. There were at least 200 locations. Some parts of the town could no longer be reached. "The people are desperate," said a spokesman for the Hagen police headquarters.

In other parts of the state, too, brooks turned into torrential rivers. There were landslides, streets were flooded, cellars overflowed, rail and road traffic were disrupted. An employee of a retirement home in Mettmann near Düsseldorf was seriously injured by a falling tree and almost drowned. A helper was able to hold the woman's head above water until firefighters had freed the trapped woman.

The fire brigade in Cologne reported 180 weather-related missions. In Dusseldorf she went to around 330 missions. The Rheinmetall Group's underground car park was also affected - the water there was 40 centimeters high. Firefighters worked for hours to protect works of art worth around five million euros in a gallery. In Erkrath, near the state capital, around 100 residents had to leave accommodation for refugees. Flood warning values ​​have been exceeded on numerous rivers in North Rhine-Westphalia.