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AT LEAST 110 people have died in devastating floods across parts of western Germany and Belgium, officials said, as rescue operations and the search for hundreds still unaccounted for continue.
Heavy rains overnight left multiple places in the province of Limburg in the Netherlands flooded Utrecht Robin / ABACA
Utrecht Robin / ABACA / ABACA
Authorities in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate said 60 people had died there, including at least nine residents of an care home for people with disabilities.
In neighbouring North Rhine-Westphalia state, officials put the death toll at 43, but warned that the figure could rise further.
A car is seen in the water of the overflowing river in Muhlheim, a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Xinhua News Agency / PA Images
Xinhua News Agency / PA Images / PA Images
Authorities said last night that about 1,300 people in Germany were still listed as missing, but cautioned that the high figure could be due to duplication of data and difficulties reaching people because of disrupted roads and phone connections.
In a provisional tally, the Belgian death toll rose to 12, with five people still missing, local authorities and media reports said.
The bank of the river Rhine is seen flooded in Cologne, western Germany Xinhua News Agency / PA Images
Xinhua News Agency / PA Images / PA Images
The flash floods this week followed days of heavy rainfall which turned streams and streets into raging torrents that swept away cars and caused houses to collapse across the region.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Joe Biden expressed their sorrow over the loss of life during a news conference at the White House last night.
The provincial disaster plan has been declared in Liege, Luxembourg and Namur provinces after large amounts of rainfall Bourguet Philippe / BePress/ABACA
Bourguet Philippe / BePress/ABACA / BePress/ABACA
The governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Armin Laschet, has called an emergency cabinet meeting for today.
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Malu Dreyer, the governor of Rhineland-Palatinate state, said the disaster showed the need to speed up efforts to curb global warming.
Two firefighters walk through the rubble in the village in the district of Ahrweiler after the storm with high water DPA / PA Images
DPA / PA Images / PA Images
Thousands of people remain homeless after their houses were destroyed or deemed at risk by authorities, including several villages around the Steinbach reservoir that experts say could collapse under the weight of the floods.
The German army has deployed 900 soldiers to help with the rescue and clear-up effort.
An advertising display lies on a destroyed car in the village in the district of Ahrweiler the day after the storm with high water DPA / PA Images
DPA / PA Images / PA Images
Across the border in Belgium, most of the drowned were found around Liege, where the rains hit hardest. Skies were largely overcast in eastern Belgium, with hopes rising that the worst of the disaster was over.
The centre of the municipality of Monreal is flooded, everything is under water DPA / PA Images
DPA / PA Images / PA Images
In the southern Dutch province of Limburg, troops piled sandbags to strengthen a 0.7-mile stretch of dyke along the Maas river and police helped evacuate some low-lying neighbourhoods.
Caretaker prime minister Mark Rutte said last night that the government was officially declaring flood-hit regions a disaster area, meaning businesses and residents are eligible for compensation for damage.
The village in the district of Ahrweiler is largely destroyed DPA / PA Images
DPA / PA Images / PA Images
King Willem-Alexander visited the region last night and called the scenes “heart-breaking”.
Meanwhile, sustained rainfall in Switzerland has caused several rivers and lakes to break their banks.
Public broadcaster SRF reported that a flash flood swept away cars, flooded basements and destroyed small bridges in the northern villages of Schleitheim und Beggingen late yesterday.
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@sean o’dhubhghaill: an absolutely important event, one also worthy of his attendance, but I have to agree with the OP that if a choice had to be made between the two, in this instance he should have attended the Bloody Sunday Memorial
@sean o’dhubhghaill: I think the President was very badly advised on this.
He should have been in Derry today to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday. It was one the most momentous events of 20th century on the Island Ireland. It was was a catalyst for everything that followed for the next 25 years.
Of course he should also mark the Holocaust. But United Nations has designated 27th January (last Thursday) as international Holocaust Memorial Day.
So his advisors / Government should have ensured both Memorial events didn’t clash.This was poor planning by the President’s office, as the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday is a very significant event, the Office of the President is meant to represent all Irish Citizens.
This was an event the President should have attended.
@Sandra Anderson: perhaps for health reasons or covid risk etc he is not there. He is 80+ years of age. I’d doubt there is any intended snub on his part.
I watched wreath-laying ceremony live on Bbc news channel. Every political party in Ireland – except Unionists, not surprisingly – was represented. While the British Broadcasting Corporation provided live coverage of this event, the Irish national broadcaster offered Mass (fair enough), aussie rules women’s football or Junior Bake-off from England. Says it all.
@Caoimhín Ó Seanáin: Doug beattie I know his been in the news for all the wrong reasons of late but his the only unionist leader to show compassion for this on his Twitter page
Those creatures slithered out Palace Barracks outside Belfast 50 years ago, faces painted black and high-velocity hollow tip rounds in their guns. They drove 85 miles up the road, those that had not already murdered unarmed civilians in Belfast now had a chance to murder in Derry. They laughed in the faces of old men and children as they lay dying and shot more rounds into them. Then they slithered back to Palace Barracks buzzing and congratulating a job well done. British soldiers killing unarmed Irish civilians under order was British policy, it always was and could always be again. The only solution is unity.
This appalling event and the prolonged campaign for justice should be remembered with great sadness today. All of the innocent that lost their lives in this conflict must never be forgotten. Those that committed these acts should never delude themselves that they eclipsed the innocent in pursuit of a greater cause, it was simply murder.
Bad mistake by Michael D no turning up, how can the families get justice if the president rates it as a second class event. Is this the same mehole who laid a wreath for Crown forces awhile ago. What a two-faced individual
@John O Mahony: If the taoiseach didn’t turn up,you be giving out,not defending wreath laying for British forces but you no reason to have a go at the leader of our government for doing the right thing today,pop away at the president.
@Madra: On his tour of South America Higgins spoke of social injustice, pity his party agreed and implemented every austerity measure that was inteterduced on the ordinary people who put their faith in them to curb FG. So called Labour became more Blueshirt than the Blueshirts. Their position in the polls reflect their betrayal of those who voted for them.
The UN should investigate the curriculum in British and Protestant north of Ireland schools to prevent the sectarian mindset of hate being created in their people.
Time for Ireland to fully highlight the past atrocities of the british state & its army alongside their collusion, gerrymandering, institutionalised sectarianism and abuse of civil rights.
Not to mention the almost unending occupation atrocities perpetrated in Ireland prior to partition.
Their “british” colonial state evolved around being a genocidal, ethnic cleansing, sectarian occupying power, a parasitic organism.
A state that has never really faced or reflected on these past atrocities anywhere which is why their media & political structures today are a cesspit of propaganda that have turned inwards without hosts to feed off.
Thankfully Ireland today has considerable soft power helping us protect the rights of our citizens who live in the 6 counties and their rights under the GFA
What ever about the rights and wrongs of the British Army been based in the North.
The Paras should never had a role same can be said for the Royal Marine Comandos and the black watch.
Spoke to my children in their 20s (I know not children) at meal time today none of them knew anything about Bloody Sunday nor the Troubles. The murders of civil rights protestors, this was not a Republican march, by the British army was as bad as anything in South Africa, India or the southern states of America. It spawned the growth of the provos who themselves were as evil as the British and declared war on this country, every politician, judge Garda, Soldier, prison officer was considered a legitimate target. No wonder SF, who are still the political wing of the provos, are so popular with the young and uninformed. Our teachers and the civil service have downgraded history as a subject, one wonders why. BTW it is not the Taoiseach because he himself is a published historian.
@Kevin50: Teachers have not downgraded history as a subject. The belief that “education” is purely utilitarian job training is at the heart of many so called reforms in education.
@Kevin50: Sorry but this comment is nonsense. That your kids know nothing about bloody sunday is an indictment of you as a parent. We should make sure our children know and remember these atrocities else we risk history repeating. As for Micheal Martin being a published historian, please. He will forever be on the wrong side of history. Ever hear of collective cabinet responsibility? Ok now go back to 2008. QED.
@Kevin50: Firstly, history has been upgraded to a CORE subject. Secondly, the fact that your children don’t know about it is an indictment of both their specific teachers and you, sorry to say. As for the rest of your comment, we’ll leave that for now.
Try to stay on topic and stop referencing other actors in the conflict as some sort of latent excuse for what the British Army did that day and many other days. It was pure, unadulterated evil.
@Liam MacSuibhne: when the conflict kicked off in 1969 and section 31 of the Broadcasting Act was introduced in 1971 by the southern state. It was clear those in power were desperate to stop the general population from joining the dots and linking what was happening in the north to what had happened in the south before partition (1916-22). So Irish history taught in the schools more are less ended with the civil rights movement, and didnt catch up again until 1994 when the peace process kicked in.
so how could it be the responsibility of parents to teach their kids about Bloody Sunday and the conflict, when many of those young parents had been deprived of that history themselves.
How well I remember it .50 years ago today I very young then and.very angry left my workplace and.joined the vast crowd heading to the British embassy .There we watched on as it was.set ablaze with the garda standing by and merely observing it all .The feeling was that these paras.were a shower of gurriers like the black and tans of a different era .The British government behind it were devious and dishonest ,gurriers too with posh accents .The.way the Widgery enquiry blackened the names of the murder victims was yet another outrage
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