The Latest on deadly flooding in Europe: BRUSSELS Belgium’s government says the death toll from unprecedented flooding in parts of the country has risen to 20. Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden said Friday that emergency workers were trying to locate another 20 people who remained missing.
Despite ample warnings, politicians and weather forecasters were shocked at the ferocity of the precipitation that caused flash flooding that killed at least 120 people in the lush wooded hills of Western Europe.
The Latest: Belgium govt raises flood death toll to 20
By The Associated PressJuly 16, 2021 GMT
The Latest on deadly flooding in Europe:
BRUSSELS Belgium’s government says the death toll from unprecedented flooding in parts of the country has risen to 20.
Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden said Friday that emergency workers were trying to locate another 20 people who remained missing.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo says Belgium will mark a day of national mourning Tuesday to reflect on “the great human loss. It will also be a moment to show solidarity, closeness and unity.”
De Croo says festivities marking the country’s national holiday on July 21 also will be toned down, saying it comes at a time “when so many people will still be in an exceptionally difficult position.”
Record rainfall leaves over 120 dead in western Europe, devastating parts of Germany By: CNN Valentin Bianchi/AP
(CNN) Catastrophic flooding in western Europe has killed more than 120 people, with hundreds more missing, authorities said Friday, as large-scale rescue efforts continue amid rising water, landslides and power outages.
Shocking images of the devastation in Germany and Belgium showed entire villages underwater, with cars wedged in between collapsed buildings and debris. The Netherlands and Luxembourg have also been affected by the extreme rainfall.
In Germany, at least 105 people have been killed across two western states. In the hard-hit district of Ahrweiler, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, authorities told CNN that 1,300 people remained unaccounted for.