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WEATHER

Deutsche Bahn halts rail services throughout Germany as storm intensifies

Rail operator Deutsche Bahn said Sunday it was halting long-distance train services in many parts of northwestern Germany because of disruptions caused by Storm Ciara, which also hit other countries in Europe.

Deutsche Bahn halts rail services throughout Germany as storm intensifies
A sign in Oberelsungen, Hesse reads that train traffic is "provisionally suspended" on Sunday afternoon. Photo: DPA

“Since there have already been disruptions caused by the cyclone, we are temporarily halting long-distance travel in large parts of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bremen with immediate effect,”  it said on its website.

“Because of current developments and increasingly powerful winds we have decided to progressively suspend all long-distance traffic across Germany from 6 pm,” it said.

Several airports in Germany also had to cancel flights as the storm swept in from the north.

Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Cologne and Hanover were among those affected, while at Düsseldorf, 111 flights were scrapped on Sunday.

READ ALSO: Germany braces for violent storms and extreme winds

Winds of more than 120 km/hr predicted

Throughout Europe, Britain and Ireland were lashed by howling winds and inundated with driving rain Sunday as Storm Ciara left homes without power, wiped out sports events and disrupted travel around northwestern Europe.

The bad weather also hit France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland throughout Sunday, causing scores of flights to be cancelled.

According to forecasters in Germany, the wind will continue to increase and heavy gusts are likely in some areas.

“With a cold front moving simultaneously from northwest to southeast, gale-force gusts of over 105 km/h and hurricane-speed gusts are also possible at times,” said the German Weather Service (DWD).

Some weather experts predicted wind speeds of more than 120km/h.

The following map shows DWD's prediction of wind speeds around Germany.

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FLOODS

Four dead as floods sweep southern Germany

Rescuers battled Monday to evacuate people from floods in southern Germany that have claimed four lives, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz called it a "warning" that climate change was getting worse.

Four dead as floods sweep southern Germany

Thousands of people in the regions of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg had to leave their homes since torrential rain on Friday sparked deadly flooding.

More evacuations were called overnight into Monday as the huge volumes of water caused flood defences to fail.

In Bavaria, around 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 on 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 floods were “a warning that we must take with us”, he said.

READ ALSO: ‘No future’: How the climate crisis is changing Alpine ski resorts

‘Never before’

The Bavarian state premier, Markus Söder, who accompanied Scholz on his visit, said there was no “full insurance” against climate change.

“Events are happening here that have never happened before,” Söder said, after a state of emergency was declared by districts across his region of Bavaria.

Around 20,000 people in Bavaria alone had been deployed to tackle the consequences of the flood, he said.

The historic part of Heidelberg is flooded during high water of the Neckar river in Heidelberg, southwestern Germany on June 3, 2024.

The historic part of Heidelberg is flooded during high water of the Neckar river in Heidelberg, southwestern Germany on June 3, 2024. Photo by Daniel ROLAND / AFP

Police in Baden-Württemberg on Monday said a man and a woman were found dead in the basement of their house in Schorndorf following the flood.

The same fate befell a 43-year-old woman in Schrobenhausen, Bavaria, whose body was found by rescuers earlier Monday.

The discoveries took the total killed by the floods to at least four, following the death of a volunteer fireman whose body was found on Sunday.

The 42-year-old volunteer died after his vessel turned over during a flood rescue operation.

Another volunteer, 22, was still missing after his boat also overturned overnight into Sunday.

A search operation to find the missing rescue worker had to be stopped due to the exceptionally high waters and strong currents, local police said.

The German Weather Service on Monday issued new warnings for heavy rain in parts of southern and eastern Germany.

READ ALSO: How floods are wreaking havoc across southern Germany

‘Rail delays’

The widespread flooding and continuous rainfall impacted transport in the region with widespread train cancellations and delays.

Train lines leading from Munich to Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Wuerzburg were unusable, rail operator Deutsche Bahn said.

A landslide near Schwaebisch Gmuend overnight into Sunday caused a high-speed train travelling between Stuttgart and Augsburg to derail, blocking the line. Nobody was hurt in the incident.

READ ALSO Trains cancelled in Germany due to severe flooding 

Despite Scholz’s pledge to combat climate change, a panel of experts separately said Monday that the government’s emissions forecasts through 2030 were unrealistic.

The government had underestimated future emissions in the transport, building and industry sectors, the climate panel said in a report.

Overall, the experts assumed that the government’s emissions-reduction target for 2030 “will not be met”.

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