Berlin: About 350 children in southern Germany were preparing to spend the night in school on Wednesday after local roads were cut off by fast-rising floods caused by torrential rain.
A further 250 children in the state of Bavaria were trapped in school earlier that day after access routes were blocked by flooding, before most of them could be rescued.
Helicopters were also called in to rescue people from the roofs of buildings in other parts of Bavaria, where officials have already estimated the cost of damages to exceed 10 million euros (11.2 million dollars), reported German Press Agency dpa.
The scale and speed of the flooding caught many people off guard, prompting local authorities to warn of the threat of a catastrophe.
"The masses of water came very fast," police said, noting that many houses were rapidly and unexpectedly surrounded by gushing flood waters.
"The situation has worsened dramatically in the last few hours," said Triftern Mayor Walter Czech. However there have been no reports of injuries or deaths so far, according to police.
Meanwhile, a school class from the Bavarian town of Augsburg also needed to be rescued from an island after the weather took a dramatic turn for the worse during a boat trip. A refugee shelter in the area also had to be evacuated due to the storm.
A total of 32 litres of rain per square meter fell within the space of six hours in the area.
Germany has been hit by a string of violent thunderstorms over the last week, triggering widespread floods in low-lying parts of the nation, while more than 30 people have been struck by lightening.
QNA
