Germany has faced dangerous floods which the German Chancellor Angela Merkel had termed as a “catastrophe”.
According to information by the BBC, 70 people have been killed by the floods in Germany and Belgium after heavy rains caused rivers to burst thier banks.
Armin Laschet, the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, blamed the extreme weather on global warming during a visit to a hard-hit area.
“We will be faced with such events over and over, and that means we need to speed up climate protection measures… because climate change isn’t confined to one state,” he said.
Schools have been closed around the west of Germany, while transport links have been severely disrupted.
About 25 houses are in danger of collapsing in the district of Schuld bei Adenau in the mountainous Eifel region, where a state of emergency has been declared, according to German broadcaster SWR.
The Meuse river which flows through the city is expected to rise by another 1.5 metres, despite being on the verge of overflowing already. Officials are also concerned that a dam bridge in the area may collapse and urged people to help each other.
In the Netherlands, there have been no casualties reported but thousands of people in towns and villages along the Meuse river have been urged to leave their houses quickly.
In the Dutch city of Maastricht, 10,000 people have been ordered to evacuate.
And flooding in Valkenburg, close to the Belgian and German borders, engulfed the town centre and forced the evacuation of several nursing homes.
