Several towns in southern Germany have been devastated by flooding that has also seen rescuers in central France rowing lifeboats down streets turned into muddy rivers.
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(AP Photo/Matthias Schrader). A auto sits under wooden blocks in Simbach am Inn, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016.
The deaths raised the toll in Germany to eight after four people were killed earlier this week in the southern Baden-Wuerttemberg region.
People look at the Zouave statue on the Pont de l’Alma, covered by rising waters from the Seine River after days of rainy weather in Paris, France, June 2, 2016.
People make their way through a the flooded street in Braunau am Inn, northern Austria on June 1,2016 after heavy rain caused flooding in parts of Austria AFP A photo taken on June 1, 2016 shows a replica of the Statue of Liberty facing the flooded Seine river in Paris.
Stranded motorists were rescued by soldiers as flood waters rose, while in Paris a metro line was shut and the Louvre museum closed.
The Musee d’Orsay, a converted railway station which hosts the world’s greatest Impressionist collection, closed early Thursday and was to move its most vulnerable works to upper floors.
The museum houses Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting Mona Lisa.
The average flood insurance take-up rate for residential buildings across Germany is estimated at around 38 percent, continued the AIR report, noting, however, there are significant regional differences in insurance.
French President Francois Hollande announced on Thursday that he would declare a state of natural catastrophe in flood-hit areas, after at least nine people were killed in floods in his country and Germany.
In France, a man on horseback died after he was swept away in a swollen river in Evry-Gregy-sur-Yerre, southeast of Paris, local authorities said on Thursday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel paid tribute to those who had lost their lives.
The mixed suburban and rural Seine-et-Marne department is on red alert and has already witnessed a casualty, an 86-year-old woman discovered drowned in her home in the department’s rural south.
They included three women from one family, in a home in the town of Simbach am Inn; a 75-year-old man in the same town; and an 80-year-old woman in the neighboring village of Julbach. No further details were given.
The bodies of three other people were found in the same town on Wednesday evening.
Belgium also endured a fourth day of heavy rain.
In Paris, the swollen Seine River and its tributaries flooded roadways, effectively isolating neighborhoods and towns.
A major train line linking Limburg to the Belgian capital of Brussels was temporarily suspended Thursday.
A beekeeper has been reported missing in eastern Belgium after being swept away while trying to save his hives from rising waters. The neighboring Netherlands, much of it already below sea level, also experienced days of flooding in several areas.
German authorities say asylum-seekers are pitching in to help recovery workers and townspeople in flooded areas of southern states.
In the town of Triftern in Germany’s flood-stricken Bavaria region houses have been partly submerged.
The waters in Bavaria have receded, and disaster relief crews were on the scene helping to clear the wreckage, while helping to prepare for more possible flooding.
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But forecasters in both Germany and France were warning of more torrential downpours in the next 24 hours.
