At least 80 people have died and hundreds more are missing in Germany after some of the worst floods in decades.
Rivers in western Europe break their banks due to heavy rains, wreaking havoc on the area.
At least 11 people have died in Belgium as a result of the severe weather, which political leaders have blamed on climate change.
Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, has offered her full support for the victims.
During a visit to a hard-hit district, North Rhine-premier, Westphalia’s Armin Laschet, blamed the severe weather on global warming.
“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.
Experts predict that climate change will increase the frequency of severe weather occurrences, but it’s difficult to connect any one event to global warming.
The German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia were the worst impacted, but Belgium and the Netherlands were also severely damaged, with Luxembourg and Switzerland seeing further floods.
Authorities claim hundreds of individuals have gone missing in the Ahrweiler area. According to a local government spokesperson, cellphone networks have been disabled, making it difficult to reach many individuals.
Schuld, a small village (700 population) was nearly completely devastated.
