Flood Levels in W. Europe Highest in 60 Years

Rain-swollen rivers in Western Europe rose to the highest flood levels in more than 60 years Wednesday, swamping cities and roads in Germany, France and Belgium and leaving up to four people dead.

The Rhine River in Germany rose steadily at a rate of up to three inches per hour, contaminating drinking water, cutting power and telephone lines and pouring into Cologne’s historic old town.

In Koblenz, Germany, a 16-year-old boy was electrocuted and died after riding his motor scooter into floodwaters outside a house where the electricity was still connected.

Rescuers feared that a 15-year-old girl who fell from a canoe into a raging river in northern Bavaria on Tuesday had drowned. Police also listed a 56-year-old man who plunged into a swollen stream near Hanua as dead.

In Belgium, a 58-year-old man was feared drowned after falling from his bicycle on a Meuse River dike near the eastern village of Maaseik.

Thousands of homes were evacuated in stricken areas of France, Germany and Belgium, and schools were closed in flooding that officials described as the worst since the late 1920s.

In eastern France, rivers burst their banks after 17 days of almost continuous rain.

In Belgium, granted emergency aid by the European Community on Wednesday, more than 2,000 people were evacuated from their homes.