The death toll from devastating floods in Germany reached 133 on Saturday, police said, bringing the total number of those killed in Europe to 153.
“According to current information, 90 people lost their lives during the disaster” in the Rhineland-Palatinate region, one of the worst hit, police in the city of Koblenz said in a statement. A further 43 people have died in the neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia, and 20 in Belgium.
Troops and firefighters scrambled through the night to find victims of the devastation left by the worst floods to hit western Europe in decades.
The deluge also pummelled Luxembourg and the Netherlands, leaving streets and homes submerged in muddy water and isolating entire communities.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who returned Friday from a trip to Washington overshadowed by the disaster, vowed to provide “short and long-term support from the government” to stricken municipalities.
She has not yet travelled to the scene from the capital Berlin, but her spokesman said Friday she was in close contact with regional leaders about “a visit soon to the scene of the catastrophe.”