German authorities said Friday two people had died in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, as a result of flooding, as water levels began to fall on the stretch of the Rhine along the border with Switzerland, DPA reported. A 61-year-old man died when the water level in his cellar rose suddenly, and another man died apparently from electrocution as he attempted to pump his cellar dry. In the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, where the Rhine had threatened to burst its banks along the border with Switzerland, the authorities said the situation was easing. Further along the river in Karlsruhe, the authorities said the Rhine would not rise as high as feared earlier, after water levels fell overnight in southern Baden-Wuerttemberg. "We expect a high of 8.35 metres in Karlsruhe at midday," a spokeswoman said. This compared with a 1999 record of 8.80 metres and did not pose a threat to dykes, she added. Shipping remained halted along stretches of the river, Europe's most important internal waterway.
