Merkel promises quick financial aid for flood victims

BERLIN

German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged quick and unbureaucratic financial support on Tuesday for victims of last week's devastating floods.

Merkel said her Cabinet will approve a financial aid package Wednesday during a news conference in Bad Munstereifel, one of the worst-hit towns in the flooded regions.

“We will do everything to ensure that people will quickly receive money,” she said, adding that the federal government and states will contribute to relief and reconstruction after the disaster.

Public broadcaster ARD reported that the amount of the emergency aid will be €400 million ($470 million).

Germany's worst flooding in decades has claimed 171 lives and caused widespread devastation in the western states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and the southeastern state of Bavaria.

The death toll from the flood disaster rose to 122 in Rhineland-Palatinate, while it reached 48 in North Rhine-Westphalia, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), a German news agency, cited police sources as saying.

A total of 763 people were injured in the flooding in the Ahrweiler district in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate, while search and rescue activities underway for 155 missing people in the district, DPA said.

Tens of thousands of people are still without power and clean water in the flood-hit villages and small towns.

*Zehra Nur Duz in Ankara contributed to this story