Flash flooding in Germany turned streams and streets into raging torrents that swept away cars and caused houses to collapse.

More than 1,300 people are unaccounted for in Germany's worst-hit Rhineland-Palatinate state after the heaviest rainfall in a century caused deadly flash floods, the local officials said.

The village of Kordel in Trier-Saarburg, which has around 2,000 residents, has been completely cut off.

4,500 people in villages in North Rhine-Westphalia had to be evacuated. Westnetz, Germany's biggest power distribution grid, said on Thursday that 200,000 properties in the North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate regions were without power in Germany and that it would be impossible to repair substations until roads were cleared.

The Deutscher Wetterdienst, the German Meteorological Service, said that the quantity of rain in some areas of Germany was the highest for over 100 years. They predicted less rain in the affected areas on Friday. In Stolberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, hundreds of people looted empty shops

Search and rescue efforts were hampered by the fact that phone and internet connections were down in some parts of the county.

An emergency was declared in the region when heavy rains caused disruption in rail, road, and river transport. (ILKHA)