Published on Tuesday, Aug 17, 2021 | 5:34 am
Updated 17 hours, 22 minutes ago
BERLIN (AP) - German rescue teams recovered the body of a woman who was washed away by flooding from a bridge in Bavaria, German news agency dpa reported Tuesday.
They are still searching for a second person who was also swept over the bridge by flash floods in southern Germany on Monday. Eight other people caught in the same flood were rescued unharmed.
Sudden heavy rains on Monday afternoon turned the Hammersbach stream in Hell Valley near the town of Grainau into a torrent that toppled a wooden bridge and threw two people into the water, dpa reported. The other people were trapped by raging water or cut off from their hiking trails by flooding in other parts of the rugged valley.
More than 160 helpers and helicopters participated in the rescue missions. The body of the woman, who was not identified, was pulled from the water on Tuesday, police said.
In addition to the eight people rescued from Monday's floods, authorities helped 108 others who had to spend the night in cabins further up the valley slopes due to the flooding. The hikers were led through the valley Tuesday by mountaineers, the Bavarian Red Cross said. None were injured, reported dpa.
The Hรถllentalklamm, or Hell Valley, is a popular destination for hikers from all over the country and abroad.
Severe weather conditions also led to a state of emergency in northern Germany, where a tornado struck the village of Grossheide near the North Sea coast on Monday night and destroyed more than 50 houses, according to dpa. Police said no one was injured, but several houses were destroyed.
Across Germany's southern border in Austria, at least four people were injured by floods and landslides, dozens of people were rescued from cars and firefighters were called hundreds of times to remove downed trees and pump flooded basements, it reported. the Austrian news agency APA.
In the community of Dienten in Austria's Pinzgau region, a bus with two people and a car with a woman were swept into a stream by a mudslide, according to the APA. All three were injured but were rescued by firefighters. A fourth person was injured in Guntramsdorf falling during clean-up efforts after heavy rains and floods.
Last month, more than 200 people died in deadly floods in western Germany.
Climate scientists say there is little doubt that climate change caused by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is causing more extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods and storms, as the planet heats up.
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