Imogen Foulkes
BBC News

In the Swiss capital Bern the river Aare flows right through the city - right now it’s flowing at a record rate of 560 cubic metres a second.

It’s already burst its banks just below Switzerland’s parliament.

People who live here are pinning their hopes on the huge orange inflatable barriers which began snaking through the town at the weekend - the Swiss invested millions in flood defences after the disastrous flooding of 2005.

But right across the country the water levels are rising.

Lake Lucerne is flooding into the town; in Basel residents have been told to keep well away from the River Rhine.

And of course in this Alpine country the other huge danger is mud and rock slides. Many road and rail links are closed, they’re just too risky to use.

Image source, EPA

The death toll from the floods in Belgium has risen to 23, according to the country’s media.

In the Wallonia region, more than 41,000 households are without power, Le Soir reports, external.

In Liège, authorities have set up a crisis response centre to house people who have been displaced by the floods. Municipal official Julie Fernandez told Reuters news agency the Centre had taken in roughly 250 families since Thursday.

The situation there is set to worsen as the water is set to reach its highest level on Friday.

Our correspondent Anna Holligan is in Valkenburg, in the Dutch province of Limburg, where some residents have been forced to leave their homes.

Officials in Belgium have warned people in the south and east of the country to avoid all travel.

According to Belgium's crisis centre, many roads are blocked or dangerous. It said France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria and Italy had provided assistance and personnel

More than 20,000 homes in the Wallonia region are without electricity and some are lacking clean water.

Thousands of people in low-lying areas have been evacuated.

• In Germany, authorities now say at least 103 people have died in floods - 43 in North Rhine-Westphalia and at least 60 in Rhineland-Palatinate. Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for
• In Belgium, officials confirm at least 14 deaths

In the German town of Schuld, houses were reduced to piles of debris and broken beams, while roads were blocked by wreckage and fallen trees. Klaus Radermacher told Reuters news agency:

In Ahrweiler, residents used snow shovels and brooms to sweep mud from their homes and shops after the floodwaters receded. Michael Ahrend told Reuters:

Pensioner Annemarie Mueller, 65, told AFP that the town of Mayen had been completely unprepared for the destruction.

Image source, EPA

Several people have died after a landslide in the town of Erftstadt, south-west of Cologne, local officials say. "Houses were largely swept away by the water and some collapsed," the Cologne local authority said on Twitter.

Local authorities said they were getting emergency calls from people trapped by floodwater but rescue was in many cases not possible, our correspondent Jenny Hill reports.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the local government told the AFP news agency that there were "confirmed" deaths.

Analysis: Chronicle of a disaster foretoldpublished at 11:00 British Summer Time 16 July 2021

11:00 BST 16 July 2021

Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst

Scientists have condemned politicians for failing to protect their citizens from extreme weather events such as the floods in Europe and the US heat dome.

They have been predicting for years that summer rainfall and heatwaves would become more intense due to human-induced climate change.

Hannah Cloke, Professor of Hydrology at the University of Reading (UK) said: "The deaths and destruction across Europe as a result of flooding is a tragedy that should have been avoided.

"Forecasters issued alerts early in the week, and yet the warnings were not taken seriously enough and preparations were inadequate.

"The fact that other parts of the northern hemisphere are currently suffering record-breaking heatwaves and fires should serve as a reminder of just much more dangerous our weather could become in an ever-warmer world.”

Scientists say government must both cut the CO2 emissions that are fuelling extreme events, and prepare for more extreme weather.

Yet in the UK - hit by severe flooding on Monday - the government's advisory climate change committee recently told ministers the nation was even worse prepared for extreme weather than it was five years ago.

It said the government was keeping only a fifth of its pledges to cut emissions.

And only this week the UK government told people that they didn't need to reduce flying because technology will solve the emissions problem - a notion that most experts consider a gamble.

Image source, Reuters

The leader of one of the worst-affected states in Germany, Rhineland-Palatinate, has blamed global warming for the extreme rainfall that caused rivers to burst their banks, devastating large areas.

Malu Dreyer said anyone who had not yet understood that climate change had consequences could no longer be helped.

The head of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, also blamed the extreme weather on global warming, stressing that climate protection measures must be accelerated.

Scientists have repeatedly warned that human-induced climate change would bring pulses of extreme rainfall such as the one in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Anna Holligan
BBC Hague correspondent, in Valkenburg

Shopping bags packed with sand are stacked against doorsteps. These makeshift dykes couldn't withstand the surging tide from entering Brigette Pieck's home.

She shows us to her basement. A fridge floats in the murky brown floodwater. The electricity is still out.

Further down the road, fire crews are pumping water from beneath the toppled slabs of concrete to access a gas pipe and stem a leak.

A bridge at the end of the street has collapsed into the river. Three cars are submerged, recycling bins and pot plants bob nearby.

Families have been bringing plastic pipes and generators to help their loved ones clear up, while the emergency services concentrate their efforts on restoring power and securing pavements.

And there are two reasons for Pieck and her neighbours on Emmalaan street to be optimistic. The watermark on the garden wall has fallen by at least two inches since we arrived this morning, and the torrential rain has subsided.

"We're the lucky ones," Pieck points out, "we have our home, and we're alive."

Image source, Getty Images

The Netherlands has also been badly affected by flooding. Yesterday, thousands of people in the south of the country were urged to leave their homes early.

People in towns and villages along the Meuse river in Limburg province were told to seek refuge until Friday afternoon at the earliest.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his cabinet held a disaster meeting, and the floods in South Limburg have been declared a disaster, NL Times reports, external.

Rutte is set to visit areas in Limburg province later but will not visit the hardest-hit areas, urging others to stay away.

The states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany have now confirmed at least 93 deaths because of the floods.

In Rhineland-Palatinate:

• At least 50 confirmed deaths
• About 1,300 people are unaccounted for in the district of Ahrweiler
• The village of Schuld, with the population of 700, is almost entirely destroyed

In North Rhine-Westphalia:

• At least 43 confirmed deaths
• A row of houses collapses in the town of Erftstadt
• A major dam near the Belgian border, the Rurtalsperre, is overflowing

Image source, Reuters

As we mentioned earlier, the flooding has also affected Belgium, where at least 12 deaths have now been confirmed.

In the Wallonia region, more than 21,000 people are without electricity.

Dramatic footage from the city of Verviers captured the moment cars were swept away, external along a street. A curfew was put in place overnight on Thursday to prevent looting.

Residents of Liège were forced to evacuate with officials telling those unable to leave to move to the upper floors of their buildings.

Philippe Devos, a doctor in Liège, has told the BBC's Today programme how his parents were rescued by police from the fast-rising floodwaters.

"Right now the water is at the ceiling of the ground floor... Their car is under the water. So if the police hadn't been there overnight I'm sure that they would have been trapped in their house like many other citizens," Devos said.

Yesterday, Belgium's King Philippe and Queen Mathilde visited a crisis centre in Chaudfontaine, southeast of Liège, set up for affected residents.

Jenny Hill
BBC Berlin correspondent, near Ahr valley

As the hours pass the magnitude of this disaster becomes clearer.

The death toll is expected to rise further during the course of the day. Many people are still missing. The authorities say it's impossible to fully estimate their number because of a lack of phone signal in many of the affected areas.

Overnight, a reservoir in western Germany overflowed its dam leading to further flooding and the evacuation of thousands of homes.

Rescuers are trying to reach people in the town of Erftstadt, where a number of houses collapsed overnight.

Emergency workers say it's difficult to reach people who are trapped in their homes because they are now only accessible by boat.

These are the worst floods in living memory here. While Germany mourns its dead many people can't even begin to count the cost of the clear-up.

Image source, Getty Images

The state secretary at Germany's Interior Ministry, Stephan Mayer, has said the death toll now stands at 81, and more than 1,300 people are still missing.

"It really can be called a humanitarian catastrophe and a disaster. It's really horrible," Mayer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Small streams developed within a few minutes into strong streams and rivers so... people couldn't prepare for that. If they were in the cellar or in the ground floor they were suddenly affected, immediately and they couldn't escape".

The official added that a lot of houses were destroyed, and rescue teams still had difficulties reaching people trapped there.

This is what Chancellor Angela Merkel had to say about the floods in Germany, during a joint news conference with US President Joe Biden as she visited the White House yesterday.

Communities in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands have been badly hit by floods caused by record rainfall.

Major rivers have burst their banks. The map below shows us the most severely affected areas.

Welcome to our live coverage of the deadly floods in western Europe, caused by record rainfall. We'll bring you the latest developments, analysis from BBC correspondents and experts, and eyewitnesses' stories from the worst-hit areas.

Here are the main headlines so far:

• At least 80 people have died and hundreds are reported missing in Germany
• Emergency services have resumed their search efforts, while the German army has been using helicopters to rescue people from rooftops
• An overflow at the Ruhr dam in the early hours of Friday prompted the evacuation of villages in the Eifel district
• Neighbouring Belgium has confirmed at least 11 deaths
• The Netherlands is also badly affected, with further flooding reported in Luxembourg and Switzerland