Four dead after floods strike southern Germany

The death toll following floods across a large part of southern Germany has increased to four as three bodies were recovered from inundated basements.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited the flooded region and officials warned that water levels could rise further in some areas.

A firefighter was found dead in nearby Pfaffenhofen on Sunday after an inflatable boat he and colleagues were using capsized.

Later Monday, police said the bodies of a man and a woman were found in a basement in Schorndorf, near Stuttgart, that had been flooded and then pumped dry.

Persistent heavy rain led to widespread flooding in the southern states of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg over the weekend.

Mr Scholz visited Reichertshofen, north of Munich, inspecting a sandbagged river bank and meeting regional officials including Markus Soder, Bavaria’s governor.

Mr Soder said that the situation “remains critical and tense”, with water receding in some places but new flooding and evacuations elsewhere.

He noted that water levels are expected to rise in the city of Regensburg and further down the Danube.

Mr Scholz said that “this is not just one event like there have been for centuries”, and that a succession of floods in recent times shows “we cannot neglect the task of halting man-made climate change”.