German authorities said on Tuesday that rescue teams have recovered the body of a woman who was swept off a bridge by floods in Bavaria, German news agency, dpa, reported.
Search is on for a second person who was also swept off the bridge by sudden floods in southern Germany, on Monday. Eight other people, caught up in the flooding, were rescued uninjured.
Sudden and heavy rains on Monday afternoon flooded the Hammersbach creek, in the Valley of Hell near the town of Grainau, which tore down a wooden bridge, sweeping down two people into the water, the dpa reported. The other people were caught by the water or cut off from their paths by the flood elsewhere in the steep valley.
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More than 160 helpers and several helicopters were involved in the rescue missions. The body of the woman was pulled out of the water on Tuesday morning, local police said.
The Höllentalklamm, or Valley of Hell, is a popular destination for hikers from across the country and abroad.
Severe weather conditions also led to a state of emergency in northern Germany, where a tornado hit the village of Grossheide near the North Sea coast, late on Monday and destroyed more than 50 homes, according to the dpa. The Police said that nobody was injured, but several homes were rendered inhabitable.
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Across Germany's southern border, in Austria, at least four people were injured by floods and mud, dozens of people were rescued from cars, and firefighters were called hundreds of times to remove toppled trees and pump out flooded basements, Austrian news agency, APA, reported.
In the community of Dienten in the Pinzgau region, a bus with two people inside and a car with one woman inside were swept into a creek by a mud avalanche, according to the APA. All three people were rescued by firefighters, but suffered injuries.
A fourth person was injured in Guntramsdorf during clean-up efforts after heavy rains and floodings there.
Climate scientists said that there's little doubt that climate change, from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, is driving more extreme weather events — such as heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods and storms — as the planet warms.