A man wades through water in front of his flooded garage in Malmedy near Liege in eastern Belgium, September 15. Towns in Antwerp and Liege provinces remained inundated in up to a metre of water after cloudbursts caused local rivers and streams to break their banks and put serious strains on drainage systems. Hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes by civil defence men and more than 750 soldiers were deployed to help, using thousands of sandbags, over a hundred vehicles, a dozen pumps and dingies and two rescue helicopters.

NK/NA/WS