REICHERTSHOFEN, Germany, June 3, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Rescuers battled Monday to
evacuate people from flood zones in southern Germany, as Chancellor Olaf
Scholz said this was a "warning" that climate change was getting worse.

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

The floods have killed at least two -- a volunteer rescuer and a woman who
was found dead in the basement of a house.

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

In Bavaria, some 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 in 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 we that we must take with us", he said.

- 'Never before' -

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

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

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

Rescuers on Monday found the body of a woman in the basement of her home in
Schrobenhausen, Bavaria, according to local police.

The 43-year-old is the second known victim of the floods, following the death
of a volunteer fireman, who was found dead 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.

- 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 stated on its website.

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.

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".