Understand if some victims could have been spared during the floods.
This is the objective of the German justice system, which announced on Monday to take up suspicions of failures in the management of the alert system and the evacuations of residents who were victims of deadly floods in western Germany in mid-July.
Possible criminal proceedings could be launched as part of the investigation.
The Koblenz prosecutor's office "examines the opening of a preliminary investigation on the basis of suspicion of homicides and unintentional injuries", according to a press release from this competent prosecutor's office for the region of Rhineland-Palatinate, the most affected by the floods.
Prosecutors will assess the advisability of launching prosecutions in connection with “possibly neglected or delayed warnings or evacuations” of the inhabitants of the Ahr valley, a region whose municipalities have been ravaged by floods.
At least 183 dead in Germany
On the basis of this audit, which will include "the numerous press articles, the conclusions of the ongoing investigations into the deaths as well as the police reports from the night of the disaster", the prosecution will determine whether they give rise to a first suspicion of death. 'criminal offenses.
A controversy followed the disaster of July 14-15, relating to the anticipation of meteorological events by the authorities, the functioning of the warning system and evacuation measures.
Some accuse the authorities of negligence, accusing them of not having given the order early enough to evacuate their homes.
These floods killed at least 183 people in Germany, including 135 in the region of Rhineland-Palatinate alone, where around sixty people are still wanted.
Belgium, also affected by the disaster, is also investigating possible failures in its warning system.
The Liège public prosecutor's office announced that an investigating judge had been seized of an investigation for “involuntary homicides”.
In Belgium, 38 people died in the floods in mid-July, according to the latest report.
