At least a hundred people have died and hundreds more are missing after torrential rainfall caused extreme flooding in Germany and Belgium.
Homes were ruined, cars were washed away and people scrambled for their lives, as rivers burst their banks and flood waters rose.
Here are some pictures from western Germany and eastern Belgium as rescuers begin to sift through the wreckage of a devastating natural disaster.
Germany
The village of Schuld in the district of Ahrweiler was battered by the flooding | Sascha Steinbach/EPACars were washed away after the river Ahr overflowed | Sascha Steinbach/EPAA destroyed car lies in the river Ahr in Schuld, Germany | Sascha Steinbach/EPAA man helps a woman to climb out of a window after the flooding | Bernd Lauter/AFP via Getty ImagesFirefighters inspect debris and damaged houses destroyed by the floods in Schuld | Bernd Lauter/AFP via Getty ImagesIn Schuld, people survey the extensive damage caused by this week’s flooding | Bernd Lauter/AFP via Getty ImagesAn aerial shot shows the extend of the flooding in Bad Neuenahr, Germany | Ferdinand Merzbach/AFP via Getty ImagesDrone footage shows the extent of how dramatically the waters rose in Western Germany | Ferdinand Merzbach/AFP via Getty ImagesGerman soldiers roll in on an armored vehicle to assist after flooding in Hagen | Friedemann Vogel/EPAGerman army soldiers evacuate people from a hospital after flooding in Bad Neuenahr | Constantin Zinn/EPA Armin Laschet, leader of Germany’s Christian Democrats, gives a press conference in Hagen during the floods | Friedemann Vogel/EPA
Belgium
The east of Belgium also bore the brunt of the torrential weather. People remove water on a flooded street in Spa | Francois Walschaerts/AFP via Getty ImagesDebris in the flood waters after heavy rains pounded the area around Verviers in eastern Belgium | Stephanie Lecocq/EPA A man holds a baby as he walks in a flooded street in the Belgian town of Hognoul | Francois Walschaerts/AFP via Getty ImagesDamaged cars on a badly flooded street in Verviers | Francois Walschaerts/AFP via Getty ImagesA woman drains her boot in Verviers | Francois Walschaerts/AFP via Getty ImagesPeople survey the wreckage in a flooded street following heavy rains in Liege, Belgium | Bruno Fahy/AFP via Getty ImagesA man rescues a dog from the rising floodwaters in Ensival, Belgium | Stephanie Lecocq/EPAQueen Mathilde of Belgium, center, visits people in a crisis center in Chaudfontaine | Stephanie Lecocq/EPAKing Philippe of Belgium also talks to people sheltering from the destruction in Chaudfontaine, where 1,800 people were reportedly evacuated | Stephanie Lecocq/EPAA woman peeks out from a building at a flooded road in Ensival | Stephanie Lecocq/EPAAn emergency worker reacts after hours helping people escape the extreme flooding in eastern Belgium | Stephanie Lecocq/EPA
