The northern state of Lower Saxony has been badly hit by torrential rain during the week, and on Friday police confirmed that they had identified the floods’ first victim – a woman who was out on her bike in the Hannover area.

She went down a road that had been blocked off due to flooding and was pulled into a river. Firemen pulled her out, but she later died in hospital.

A man is also missing in northern Bavaria, where there has also been some flooding. He is thought to have jumped in a river to try and save his dog. Police believe the 40-year-old must have been swept away, but they have no indication as to where he could be now.

Besides Lower Saxony, the states of Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Hesse and Saxony had been inundated with heavy downpours overnight.

Continuous rain has also disrupted transport across the north, with the A4 and A71 motorways both being forced to shut, as was the A73 in Bavaria.

In the northern Bavarian city of Bamberg, many of residents are battling with flooded cellars after particularly heavy rainfall turned roads into rivers. Police said all areas of the city were, to some extent, affected but residents of two houses in the Lichtenfels area had to be taken to safety.

Bad weather should, German weather service the DWD said, continue until Friday evening with between 40 and 70 litres possible falling in under 24 hours. This means that the meteorological start of summer, June 1st, will be a wet one for many.

Slowly though, the sun should creep back as a high pressure system makes its way over the northwest bringing the possibility of highs of 23C.

“Nicer weather should read the south and east by Monday at the latest,” Johanna Anger of the DWD said. “But temperatures over 25C are not yet likely,” she added.

DPA/The Local/jcw