Thousands evacuated from German flood zone as Scholz visits

REICHERTSHOFEN, Germany: Rescuers battled on Monday to evacuate people from flood zones in southern Germany, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this was a “warning” that climate change was getting worse.

Thousands of people in the regions of Bavaria and Baden Wuerttemberg had to leave their homes since torrential rain on Friday sparked deadly flooding. The floods have killed at least two -- a volunteer rescuer and a woman who was found dead in the basement of a house.

More evacuations were called overnight into Monday as the huge volumes of water caused flood defences to fail. In Bavaria, some 800 people were asked to leave their homes in the area of Ebenhausen-Werk after a dam burst early Monday.

Residents around Manching-Pichl in the area worst affected by the floods were told to shelter in the upper floors of their homes. Speaking on a visit to Reichertshofen, in a flood-hit area north of Munich, Scholz said that such floods were no longer a “one-off”.

“This is an indication that something is up here. We must not neglect the task of stopping man-made climate change,” Scholz told journalists. The Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder, who accompanied Scholz on his visit said there was no “full insurance” against climate change. “Events are happening here that have never happened before,” Soeder said, after a state of emergency was declared by districts across his region of Bavaria.