BERLIN (AP) — The death toll from devastating floods across parts of western Germany and Belgium rose above 90 on Friday, as the search continued for hundreds of people still unaccounted for and officials warned such disasters could become more common due to climate change.
Authorities in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate said 50 people had died there, including at least nine residents of an assisted living facility for people with disabilities. In neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia state officials put the death toll at 30, but warned that the figure could rise further.
Some 1,300 people in Germany were still reported missing, though authorities said efforts to contact them could be hampered by disrupted roads and phone connections.
In a provisional tally, the Belgian death toll has risen to 12, with 5 people still missing, local authorities and media report early Friday.
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 U.S. President Joe Biden expressed their sorrow over the loss of life during a news conference at the White House late Thursday.
The long-time German leader, who was on a farewell trip to Washington, said she feared that “the full extent of this tragedy will only be seen in the coming days.”
Rescuers were rushing Friday to help people trapped in their homes in the town of Erftstadt, southwest of Cologne. Regional authorities said several people had died after their houses collapsed due to subsidence, and aerial pictures showed what appeared to be a massive sinkhole.
Three people were rescued from the Wurm River in Heinsberg county late Thursday.
The governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, Armin Laschet, has called an emergency Cabinet meeting Friday. The 60-year-old’s handling of the flood disaster is widely seen as a test for his ambitions to succeed Merkel as chancellor in Germany’s national election on Sept. 26.
Malu Dreyer, the governor of neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate state, said the disaster showed the need to speed up efforts to curb global warming.
“We’ve experienced droughts, heavy rain and flooding events several years in a row, including in our state,” she told the Funke media group. “Climate chance isn’t abstract anymore. We are experiencing it up close and painfully.”
She accused the Laschet and Merkel’s center-right Union bloc of hindering efforts to achieve greater greenhouse gas reductions in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and a major emitter of planet-warming gases.
The German army has deployed 900 soldiers to help with the rescue and clear-up efforts.
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.
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 calamity was over.
In the southern Dutch province of Limburg, troops piled sandbags to strengthen a 1.1 kilometer (0.7 miles) stretch of dike along the Maas river and police helped evacuate some low-lying neighborhoods.
Caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Thursday night that the government was officially declaring flood-hit regions a disaster area, meaning businesses and residents are eligible for compensation for damage.
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 Thursday.
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Associated Press writers Raf Casert in Brussels and Mike Corder in The Hague contributed to this report.
BERLIN (AP) — At least eight people have died and dozens of people are missing in Germany after heavy flooding turned streams and streets into raging torrents, sweeping away cars and causing some buildings to collapse.
Police in the western city of Koblenz said Thursday that four people had died in Ahrweiler county, and about 50 were trapped on the roofs of their houses awaiting rescue.
Six houses had collapsed overnight in the village of Schuld. “Many people have been reported missing to us,” police said.
Schuld is located in the Eifel, a volcanic region of rolling hills and small valleys southwest of Cologne.
The full extent of the damage in the region was still unclear after many villages were cut off by floodwater and landslides that made roads impassable. Videos posted on social media showed cars floating down streets and houses partly collapsed in some places.
Authorities have declared an emergency in the region after days of heavy rainfall that also affected large parts of western and central Germany, as well as neighboring countries, causing widespread damage.
Police said two men, aged 77 and 82, died after their basements were flooded in the western cities of Kamen and Wuppertal, where authorities warned that a dam threatened to burst.
Authorities in the Rhine-Sieg county south of Cologne ordered the evacuation of several villages below the Steinbachtal reservoir amid fears the dam there could also break.
A fireman drowned Wednesday during rescue work in the western German town of Altena and another collapsed during rescue operations at a power plant in Werdohl-Elverlingsen. One man was missing in the eastern town of Joehstadt after disappearing while trying to secure his property from rising waters, authorities said.
Rail connections were suspended in large parts of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state. Governor Armin Laschet, who is running to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in this fall’s German election, was expected to visit the flood-hit city of Hagen later Thursday.
German weather service DWD predicted the rainfall would ease Thursday.
Relentless rains through the night worsened the flooding conditions in eastern Belgium, where one person was reported drowned and at least another was missing.
Some towns saw water levels rise to unprecedented levels and had their centers turned into gushing rivers.
Major highways were inundated and in the south and east of the nation, the railway service said all traffic was stopped, adding that “alternative transport is highly unlikely.”
In eastern Eupen, on the German border, one man was reported dead after he was swept away by a torrent, a local governor told RTBf network.
In Liege, the main city in eastern Belgium, the Meuse river could break its banks by early afternoon and spill into the heart of the city. Police warned the citizens to take precautionary measures.
Authorities in the southern Dutch town of Valkenburg, close to the German and Belgian borders, evacuated a care home and a hospice overnight amid flooding that turned the tourist town’s main street into a river, Dutch media reported.
The Dutch government sent some 70 troops to the southern province of Limburg late Wednesday to help with tasks including transporting evacuees and filling sandbags as rivers burst their banks. There were no reports of injuries linked to flooding in the Netherlands.
Unusually intense rains have also inundated a swath of northeast France this week, downing trees and forcing the closure of dozens of roads. A train route to Luxembourg was disrupted, and firefighters evacuated dozens of people from homes near the Luxembourg and German border and in the Marne region, according to local broadcaster France Bleu.
The equivalent of two months of rain has fallen on some areas in the last one or two days, according to the French national weather service. With the ground already saturated, the service forecast more downpours Thursday and issued flood warnings for 10 regions.
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Raf Casert in Brussels, Angela Charlton in Paris and Mike Corder in The Hague contributed to this report.
PARIS — A 90-year-old woman who died after falling ill with Covid-19 was infected with both the Alpha and Beta variants of the coronavirus at the same time, researchers in Belgium said Sunday, adding that the rare phenomenon may be underestimated.
The unvaccinated woman, who lived alone and received at-home nursing care, was admitted to the OLV Hospital in the Belgian city of Aalst after a spate of falls in March and tested positive for Covid-19 the same day.
While her oxygen levels were initially good, her condition deteriorated rapidly and she died five days later.
When medical staff tested for the presence of any variants of concern they found that she was carrying both the Alpha strain, which originated in Britain, and the Beta variant first detected in South Africa.
“Both these variants were circulating in Belgium at the time, so it is likely that the lady was co-infected with different viruses from two different people,” said molecular biologist Anne Vankeerberghen from the OLV Hospital who led the research.
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“Unfortunately, we don’t know how she became infected.”
Vankeerberghen said it was difficult to say whether the co-infection played a role in the fast deterioration of the patient.
The research, which has not yet been submitted to a medical journal for publication, is being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases.
While Vankeerberghen said in a press release that there had been “no other published cases” of similar co-infections, she added that the “phenomenon is probably underestimated.”
This is because of limited testing for variants of concern, she said, calling for an increase in the use of fast PCR testing to detect known variant mutations.
In January, scientists in Brazil reported that two people had been simultaneously infected with two different strains of the coronavirus, but the study has yet to be published in a scientific journal.
In comments reacting to the research, Lawrence Young, a virologist and Professor of Molecular Oncology at the University of Warwick, said it was not a surprise to find an individual infected with more than one strain.
“This study does highlight the need for more studies to determine whether infection with multiple variants of concern affects the clinical course of Covid-19 and whether this in any way compromises the efficacy of vaccination,” he added.
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The quarterfinals are underway at UEFA Euro 2020. A frantic round of 16 kicked off the knockout stage and saw many big names crash out of the tournament. France were stunned by Switzerland, Belgium knocked out Portugal and the Czech Republic took down the Netherlands while England sent Germany packing, with eight advancing in the competition: Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ukraine and England.
The quarterfinals were no less dramatic as Switzerland and Spain went to penalties before Spain ultimately prevailed ahead of Italy took a two goal lead and held on against Belgium. Saturday the Czech Republic take on Denmark and Ukraine face off against England.
The quarterfinals are set to kick off on Friday with the winners of the four games heading to Wembley Stadium for the semifinals. Can England keep things going after a historic win over Germany? Will Italy bounce a banged-up Belgium side? Can underdogs like the Swiss and Czechs keep their dreams alive? We’ll find out soon.
So who do you have making it to the final? Below you’ll find the schedule and kickoff times for every match in the knockout stage. As a reminder: If the match ends in a tie after 90 minutes, we go to two extra-periods, and if it stays leveled, then it’s off to a penalty-kick shootout. You can watch every single match of the competition via fuboTV (Try for free).
(All times U.S./Eastern)
Quarterfinals
Friday, July 2 Switzerland 1, Spain 1 (Spain advance 3-1 on penalties) Belgium 1, Italy 2
Saturday, July 3 Czech Republic vs. Denmark, 12 p.m. (ESPN) Ukraine vs. England, 3 p.m. (ABC)
Semifinals
Tuesday, July 6 Italy vs. Spain, 3 p.m. (ESPN)
Wednesday, July 7 Ukraine/England vs. Czech Republic/Denmark, 3 p.m. (ESPN)
Final
Sunday, July 11 Winner of SF 1 vs. Winner of SF 2, 3 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Completed Matches
Round of 16
Saturday, June 26 Wales 0, Denmark 4 Italy 2, Austria 1
Sunday, June 27 Czech Republic 2, Netherlands 0 Belgium 1, Portugal 0
Monday, June 28 Croatia 3, Spain 5 (after extra time) France 3, Switzerland 3 (Switzerland advance, 5-4, in PKs)
Tuesday, June 29 England 2, Germany 0 Sweden 1, Ukraine 2 (after extra time)
Group stage results
June 12 Turkey 0, Italy 3
June 13 Wales 1, Switzerland 1 Denmark 0, Finland 1 Belgium 3, Russia 0
June 14 England 1, Croatia 0 Austria 3, North Macedonia 1 Netherlands 3, Ukraine 2
June 15 Scotland 0, Czech Republic 2 Poland 1, Slovakia 2 Spain 0, Sweden 0
June 16 Hungary 0, Portugal 3 France 1, Germany 0
Matchday 2
June 16 Finland 0, Russia 1 Turkey 0, Wales 2 Italy 3, Switzerland 0
June 17 Ukraine 2, North Macedonia 1 Denmark 1, Belgium 2 Netherlands 2, Austria 0
June 18 Sweden 1, Slovakia 0 Croatia 1, Czech Republic 1 England 0, Scotland 0
June 19 Hungary 1, France 1 Portugal 2, Germany 4 Spain 1, Poland 1
Matchday 3
June 20 Italy 1, Wales 0 Switzerland 3, Turkey 1
June 21 North Macedonia 0, Netherlands 3 Ukraine 0, Austria 1 Finland 0, Belgium 2 Russia 1, Denmark 4
June 22 Croatia 3, Scotland 1 Czech Republic 0, England 1
June 23 Slovakia 0, Spain 5 Sweden 3, Poland 2 Portugal 2, France 2 Germany 2, Hungary 2