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The death toll from heavy flooding in western Germany rose to 81 on Friday and more than 1,000 residents are believed to be missing in one of the country’s most destructive natural disasters in recent years.
Officials from the Ahrweiler district in southern Cologne said about 1,300 people appeared missing since Thursday night. However, cellular networks do not work, making it difficult to explain the missing.
“Due to the complex damage situation, it is not yet possible to make a final assessment of the situation,” the district government wrote on its website.
Torrential rains on Thursday caused the waters of the overflowing rivers to be washed away by many districts in the German regions of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. Transport networks were blocked in some areas, while houses collapsed in the district of Erfstadt, on the outskirts of Cologne.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told the newspaper Spiegel that the government would try to provide financial support to the affected districts as soon as possible.
“Throughout my political career in Germany I have never seen a flood with such terrible consequences, with so many dead and missing,” Seehofer said. “No one can seriously doubt that this catastrophe is related to climate change.”
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