BERLIN - At least six people were missing and one dead early Tuesday in the eastern German state of Saxony in torrential rains that have ravaged regions of the country for days, police said.

The body of a 70-year-old man was recovered from the floods as mounting water levels on rivers in Saxony left dozens stranded in extreme weather that has left four Germans dead. Electricity and telephone lines were down in large swathes of the state. In the south of the country, a state of emergency was declared in seven districts of the southern state of Bavaria, where the Danube passed the 10-meter (22-foot) mark, just short of a record.

In Berlin and its outlying areas, firefighters and Bundeswehr soldiers worked through the night Monday, when the amount of rainfall normal for the full month of August descended on the region. Some 1,100 members of the armed forces were assisting with relief efforts in Bavaria, Saxony and the central state of Thuringia, laying sandbags and evacuating residents.

Copyright 2002 - AFP & Weatheronline