About 3,000 people evacuated due to floods in Bavaria

June 2 () –

Some 3,000 people have had to be evacuated in the Bavaria region due to flooding affecting the area, according to regional authorities. A firefighter has died during a rescue operation.

The Bavarian government has also indicated that there are about 20,000 people currently deployed in response to the emergency situation and that in total there have been about 40,000 who have worked in one way or another since the start of the floods.

The heavy rains have also caused the dam installed on the Paar River in the Pfaffenhofen district to break in two places. It is a tributary river of the Danube.

In total there are thirteen districts that have declared a state of emergency in the regions of Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg.

The deceased firefighter was in an inflatable boat with three other rescuers in the town of Pfaffenhofen on Saturday night when the boat capsized. His body was found early this Sunday morning, according to a spokesperson for the district office.

The other three firefighters were rescued after this event, which occurred when they were on their way to rescue a family in the flooded area. There are no details about what has happened to the family.

Likewise, east of the city of Stuttgart in the state of Baden-Württemberg, two carriages of a long-distance train carrying 185 passengers derailed after the railway tracks were affected by a landslide caused by heavy rains.

No one was injured and passengers were evacuated from the train in the early hours of Sunday, according to a spokesman for the national rail operator. The cars left the tracks but did not overturn.

The landslide occurred in the town of Schwäbisch Gmünd, about 50 kilometers east of Stuttgart. The mudslide was about 30 meters wide and also affected a road parallel to the train tracks, according to the spokesperson.

The Swabian Alps south of Stuttgart, as well as the region around Augsburg, Nuremberg, Bamberg and Regensburg, are particularly exposed to Sunday’s downpours and storms and a disaster alert has been issued in several districts of Bavaria.

The German Army has intervened to help after the rivers flooded. In Bavaria alone there are about 800 soldiers mobilized. Hundreds of people have been evacuated and a prison in Memmingen, west of Munich, was evacuated and its 100 prisoners were placed in nearby institutions.