A grim Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder this evening said Germany was facing a catastrophe as flood waters swamped large swathes of the depressed east of the country and left at least 12 people dead.
After a visit to Saxony, the state in eastern Germany that has been worst hit, he said the havoc wreaked by the floods could run into billions of euros.
"When I say this is a catastrophe, I mean it," he told a news conference in Berlin on his return.
"I have never in my life seen such water damage on this scale." He said the floods had put back efforts to develop economically vulnerable east Germany into which the federal government has poured billions of dollars since the country was reunited 1990.
"Ten years' work has been destroyed in a night," the chancellor said earlier during a visit to Grimma, in Saxony. "I will never forget what I have seen in Grimma."
Authorities in Saxony said the death toll there had reached eight, one of them a 76-year-old woman who fell out of a helicopter as she was being rescued. Several other people were reported missing.
Earlier, Schroeder pledged extra help for those most in need, bringing the total government aid package on offer to nearly 300 million euros.
Around 100 million euros will be disbursed in immediate aid for people who have lost their homes and livelihoods.
Schroeder, who is facing an uphill battle for re-election on September 22nd, said the crisis needed a national response that "reaches far beyond political borders."
Although parts of the southern state of Bavaria are also ravaged by floods, particularly the city of Regensburg, by far the worst affected area is Saxony and its historic capital Dresden.
Also affected are the central states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, while authorities in other states are taking urgent pre-emptive action.
Forecasters predicted more flooding to come as the rain that has fallen in the neighbouring Czech Republic, wreaking havoc there and forcing the partial evacuation of the capital Prague, flows downstream.
AFP