<span style="color: black;">At least 80 people have died and hundreds more are unaccounted for in Germany after some of the worst flooding in decades.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Record rainfall in western Europe caused rivers to burst their banks, devastating the region.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Belgium has also reported at least 12 dead after the extreme weather, which political leaders have blamed on climate change.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged full support for the victims.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">In Germany, the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia were worst hit.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">During a visit to a hard-hit area, Armin Laschet, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, blamed the extreme weather on global warming, saying climate protection measures must be accelerated.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Scientists have repeatedly warned that human-induced climate change would bring pulses of extreme rainfall such as this one.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">The Netherlands is also badly affected, with further flooding in Luxembourg and Switzerland.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">In the western German district of Ahrweiler, up to 1,300 people are reportedly unaccounted for. A spokeswoman for the local government said mobile networks had been put out of action, making it impossible to contact many people.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">The village of Schuld was almost entirely destroyed. Officials say, a major dam near the Belgian border, the Rurtalsperre, is overflowing slightly.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">More heavy rain is forecast across the region today.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: black;">Some 15,000 police, soldiers and emergency service workers are at the scene to aid with search and rescue, while helicopters picked stranded residents from roof tops and tanks cleared roads of fallen trees and debris.</span><br />''