German chancellor to visit flood-affected state of Saxony-Anhalt

Flood affected regions of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt are expecting Chancellor Olaf Scholz to visit on Thursday and see their plight first-hand.

He had already visited flooded areas in Lower Saxony on New Year's Eve. This time, the chancellor will be accompanied by Environment Minister Steffi Lemke and Saxony-Anhalt State Premier Reiner Haseloff.

Together, the politicians want to find out about the flood situation in Oberröblingen, a district of Sangerhausen. An appointment is planned at the dyke at the Helme bridge, which is in danger of collapsing - together with the District Administrator of the Mansfeld-Südharz district, André Schröder.

This will be followed by a discussion with the incident commander, the emergency services and the mayors of the affected municipalities. Scholz, Lemke and Haseloff will then travel to a sandbag filling station in the village of Berga and talk to volunteers.

A state of emergency was declared in the Mansfeld-Südharz district shortly before New Year. The River Helme had burst its banks in places. Several towns along the river are currently under threat.

In other federal states too, especially in Lower Saxony, the emergency services have been battling the masses of water for days. Many water gauges in Lower Saxony and parts of Bremen continue to indicate the highest reporting level.

Although it is expected to remain largely dry on Thursday, the situation threatens to worsen in some places after the continuous rain of the past few days. The catchment areas of the Aller, Leine, Oker, Hase and Hunte rivers are affected.

"We are still in an extremely critical situation and we are fully focussed on combatting the floods," said Lower Saxony's Minister President Stephan Weil on NDR television on Wednesday evening.