Here's a recap of today's key developments after deadly flooding devastated a large area of Western Europe:

• At least 120 people have died and hundreds more are still missing after some of the worst flooding to hit the region for decades
• In Germany, at least 103 people have been killed - and more than 1,000 are still unaccounted for. The victims include 12 residents of an assisted living facility for disabled people in the town of Sinzig
• In neighbouring Belgium, at least 20 deaths have been recorded. The prime minister has said the flooding is the worst the country has ever seen and has declared a day of national mourning
• In the Netherlands, hundreds of people have been evacuated in the town of Meerssen after a dyke burst
• Emergency workers are rushing to save hundreds of people who are still in danger, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for decisive action against climate change

You can follow the latest developments by reading our updated story here.

Image source, AFP/Getty

While the main focus has been on helping those in danger, many people have also been seen rescuing their pets and other animals from the devastation.

German Uwe Gödecke told Deutsche Welle that he was able to flee out of his kitchen window with his wife and their dog Kuno, before being rescued by a German Red Cross motor boat.

Image source, EPA

Image source, AFP/Getty

Meanwhile, two women were seen trying to get their animals out of an evacuation zone in the Netherlands where a burst dyke has prompted fears of rising floodwater.

Activists from the Fridays for Future group in Germany have gone on strike in response to the floods in Europe.

The group was set up by the climate activist Greta Thunberg.

A post on Twitter announced the strike and said it was to "fight the climate crisis". "Our sympathy and solidarity goes out to all of those affected by the flood disaster,” the post said.

It comes after German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged a more "determined" action on climate change, following the floods. He said it was the only way to keep that type of extreme weather within limits.

Image source, EPA

The floods in the German state of North-Rhine-Westphalia have been described as a "disaster of historic dimensions" by the state leader.

Armin Lachet told reporters that in some parts the floods had caused "damage of unprecedented dimension". A total of 23 cities and districts in the region have been affected.

"We'll repair houses, rebuild bridges, repair traffic routes. But the lives lost in the floods are irreplaceable," he said.

At least 42 deaths have been confirmed in North Rhine-Westphalia. But Lachet said the number was likely to rise.

Image source, AFP

Germans have shared their horror at the speed with which floodwaters engulfed their homes and businesses, devastating many areas near the River Rhine.

Some compare the scale of devastation with the pounding that Germany endured in World War Two. And in a reminder of the war, the army is using armoured vehicles to help clear away debris.

In the village of Schuld, in the Eifel region, the flash flood ripped buildings apart and tossed cars over, filling the streets with piles of debris and thick layers of mud.

Image source, AFP

Tearful 76-year-old resident Marlene Wiechmann said the last time Schuld experienced such catastrophic flooding was in 1910. It was such a shock to the community that it became part of local folklore for generations.

"Everything broken, swept away, it's a catastrophe," she told the public broadcaster SWR.

"Our tennis courts were over there, the house of Stanni from Poland was over there," she said, pointing to a tangle of mud, smashed trees and wreckage.

Read our full story.

Image source, EPA

If you’re just joining us, here are the latest headlines as several European countries respond to the worst flooding in decades:

• More than 100 people have died in Germany and hundreds more are believed to be missing. Officials say the death toll there is likely to rise
• Some 15,000 police, soldiers and emergency service workers have been deployed to help with the search and rescue effort. Officials in the western German district of Ahrweiler say up to 1,300 people are unaccounted for
• In Belgium, 20 people have been killed and a further 20 are missing. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has declared 20 July a national day of mourning
• Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland have also been affected by the heavy flooding

• In the Netherlands, people in Meerssen and the surrounding areas have been told to evacuate after a hole emerged in a nearby dyke

Hundreds of people have been urged to leave their homes in and around the town of Meerssen in the Netherlands after flood waters broke through a dyke on Friday.

Emergency services warned that flood waters were approaching surrounding villages and urged people to turn off their electricity and gas and leave their homes.

An online alert told people that there was a "large hole in the dyke".

It's thought 3,000 people have been affected, Reuters news agency reports.

Hundreds of firefighters have been deployed in Limburg province to help evacuate residents and reinforce buildings.

Image source, Reuters

Germans are continuing to assess the damage left in the wake of the deadly flooding.

The latest images from the clean-up operation show the ease by which even heavy vehicles were carried and crushed by floodwaters in the town of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler.

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

Image source, EPA

The number of people killed from the floods in Belgium has risen to 20, with at least another 20 people still missing, Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden says.

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has declared next Tuesday, 20 July, a day of national mourning.

"We're still waiting for the final toll, but this could be the most catastrophic flooding our country has ever seen," he said.

Earlier, media reports suggested that 23 people had already been confirmed dead.

Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst

Top climate scientists have admitted they failed to predict the intensity of the German floods and the North American heat dome.

They've correctly warned over decades that a fast-warming climate would bring worse bursts of rain and more damaging heatwaves.

But they say their computers are not powerful enough to accurately project the severity of those extremes.

They want governments to spend big on a shared climate super-computer.

Computers are fundamental to weather forecasting and climate change, and computing will underpin the new climate science "Bible", from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) next month.

But former Met Office chief scientist Prof Dame Julia Slingo told the BBC: "We should be alarmed because the IPCC [climate computer] models are just not good enough.

"[We need] an international centre to deliver the quantum leap to climate models that capture the fundamental physics that drive extremes.

"Unless we do that we will continue to underestimate the intensity/frequency of extremes and the increasingly unprecedented nature of them."

The German military has now deployed about 850 troops to help in flood-impacted areas in the south-west of the country.

A defence ministry spokesman said the number was "rising significantly because the need is growing".

Arne Collatz said officials had triggered a "military disaster alarm", a move that decentralises decisions on using equipment to individual commanders on the ground.

Kaan Polat was staying with family in Poulseur, Germany, when the floods hit overnight Wednesday.

He told the BBC how they woke up at 04:00 yesterday to find the local river had risen in heavy rains and completely submerged their home's ground floor.

Polat said he and neighbours tried to help each other - including by kayaking with food - as they waited for emergency service help.

He was eventually rescued along with his family last night, as he told us in a phone interview today.

BBC Weather

It has been reported that some parts of south-west Germany recorded in excess of 150mm of rain in 24 hours, most of which fell in just a 12-hour time frame. To give an idea of how much that is, the city of Mannheim usually receives close to 70mm in an average July.

The worst of the rain has now eased.

However, the weather system responsible is now drifting its way southwards and eastwards, threatening some heavy downpours and thunderstorms to other parts of Europe.

The focus on Friday will be across parts of the Alps, southern Germany, Italy and across into the Balkans and Poland. Similar areas will see bouts of heavy rain and thunderstorms heading into Saturday whilst the emphasis shifts that little bit further south and east on Sunday.

With such intense rainfall, there will be the threat of some flash flooding locally, although it is unlikely to be on the scale of the flooding we have seen this week.

More now from Rhineland-Palatinate, where the state leader has warned that the death toll linked to the floods is expected to rise.

"Numerous people are still considered missing," Malu Dreyer said. "We have 60 dead to mourn at the moment and it's feared that the number will rise even further. We're not giving up hope, of course".

She added that the heavy rain hit regions where typical flood protection is not required. She said that developing new flood protection concepts would be a priority.

"Yet I would like to say that these floods were so severe that at some point there were limits to how much protection we could actually provide," she said.

Image source, Reuters

One of the worst-hit areas in Germany's Rhineland-Palatinate is the municipality of Schuld, where about 700 people live.

Local residents say they have been stunned by the force of the water. Frank Thel told Reuters news agency:

Another local resident, who identified himself simply as Larscheid, said:

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has urged a more "determined" action on climate change, following the deadly flooding in the western states of his country. He said that was the only way to keep that type of extreme weather within limits.

Steinmeier also said he was stunned by the suffering and damage caused by the floods, and warned that many people would need help long after the floodwaters had gone.

"The water is receding. The full extent of the disaster is only now becoming clear," the president said.

"Perhaps, in a few days' time, the terrible pictures of the flooding will not dominate the news - but that is exactly when people in the flooded areas will most need our continued support. We must not disappoint them."

Image source, EPA

Welcome to our coverage of the extreme weather disaster in Europe:

• Flash floods have hit regions of Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands
• In Germany, more than 100 people have died. Emergency services are searching for many people who are missing and trying to evacuate others however in some places it’s proving difficult
• In Belgium, at least 23 people have reportedly died. Residents of Liège, Belgium's third-largest urban area after Brussels and Antwerp, were ordered to evacuate
• Thousands of people have been evacuated in the south of the Netherlands
• The head of the EU Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, has warned that flooding events are a clear indication of climate change and show the urgent need to act

Image source, Reuters

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has become the latest politician from Germany to call for urgent action to tackle global warming in the wake of the deadly flooding in western Europe.

"It is the intensity and the length of the events that science tells us this is a clear indication of climate change and that this is something that really, really shows the urgency to act," she told reporters during a visit to Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland.

We reported earlier that similar appeals were made by the leaders of the two German states worst hit by the flooding (see our 10:47 post).