The number of flood victims in Europe has risen to 153. In Germany, the number of people who have died has risen to 133, and more than 3,000 have been evacuated in the west of the country, and 20 people have died in Belgium due to the floods.

German police said that according to current information, 90 people died in the disaster in the Rhineland-Palatinate, one of the worst-affected regions.

This is in addition to the killing of 43 people in Rinania, North Westphalia;

It is another German region hit by storms.

This toll is still preliminary, as many people are still missing in western Germany and Belgium, which raises fears of an increase in casualties over the next few hours.

These floods are unprecedented in the history of Germany and Belgium, as they swept across large parts of the two countries and other European countries over the past two days.


Entire regions were reduced to rubble after rivers flooded towns and villages in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.

The torrential rains that have continued since last Monday have caused the collapse of homes and the destruction of a number of roads and infrastructure.

Some cities are still cut off from the rest of the country due to the flooding of roads and the destruction of bridges, while evacuating residents from some areas in the west of the country continues, and a state of emergency has been declared in other areas.

Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her affection for the country's floods and promised to support those affected (Getty Images)

Flash floods hit parts of the two most populous states, Rhineland-Palatinate (west) and North Rhine-Westphalia (northwest), causing streets to turn into rivers and homes to collapse.

The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia declared a state of emergency, urging people to avoid staying in the area.

"The suffering is increasing," Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer told ZDF radio, adding that more than 50 people had died in the floods in this state alone.

She pointed out that the infrastructure was completely destroyed, and repairing it would take a lot of time and money.

The government of neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia wrote on Facebook that about 1,300 people were missing in Arweiler, south of Cologne.

Mobile phone networks have collapsed in some flood-hit areas.

VIDEO: 🇧🇪 Drone images show the extent of the floods in the Belgian municipality of #Pepinster.

Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden said the death toll from the floods in #Belgium had risen to 20 people, with around 20 people missing pic.twitter.com/zOniUFVnea

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 16, 2021

In the district of Irfstadt further north, near Cologne, several people are missing, according to the county government of Cologne.

A gas leak hampered rescue workers trying to reach the stranded residents by boat.

A dam near the border with Belgium was flooded overnight, while the condition of another dam between Arweiler and Erfstadt was unstable.

The water level exceeded the maximum in several other dams.

The death toll is the highest of any natural disaster in Germany since the North Sea flood in 1962, which killed about 340 people.

The parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia is holding an emergency meeting to discuss the flood disaster on Friday.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told Spiegel magazine that the federal government is seeking to provide financial support to the affected areas as soon as possible, adding that a set of measures will be presented to the government for approval on Wednesday.

VIDEO: Heavy damage after fatal floods in Germany.

Massive flooding in western Germany has left dozens of people dead and caused significant damage pic.twitter.com/D7JVPbZUPm

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 16, 2021

On the other hand, a spokesman for "Westnitz", the largest electricity distribution company in Germany, said that the heavy floods led to a blackout in 114,000 homes on Friday.

In response to a query, a company spokesperson said, "All available employees are on site and are working under great pressure to restore electricity."

A scene from the devastating floods in Germany (Reuters)

blacksmith in belgium

In Belgium, 20 people were killed and another missing in the country's floods, according to provisional figures provided Friday by Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden.

Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo, at a press conference, said the flooding was "unprecedented" and declared a day of national mourning.

"We are still waiting for the final outcome, but these floods may be the most tragic in the country's history," he added, declaring Tuesday 20 July a day of national mourning.

Significant damage was recorded similar to what happened in Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

a national disaster in the netherlands

In the Netherlands, thousands of people fled their homes in the south of the country on Friday after rising waters breached a dam and overran a number of cities.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte declared a state of national disaster in the southern province of Limburg, which lies between two flood-hit regions in western Germany and Belgium.

Authorities prepared to evacuate large areas of Venlo on Friday, telling residents of the smaller town of Mersin to leave their homes.

Most of the Netherlands is below sea level, and relies on a complex network of ancient dams and modern concrete barriers to protect against sea water and rivers.