Senior German state official quits over 2021 flood response

BERLIN (AP) — A senior German state official has announced his resignation amid questions over his management of deadly floods that hit his region last year. The interior minister of the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate said Wednesday he was “taking the political responsibility for mistakes that were made in my area of responsibility.” More than 230 people died in Germany and neighboring Belgium in the floods on July 14, 2021. The hardest-hit area was Rhineland-Palatinate’s Ahr valley where at least 134 people died. The interior minister had come under mounting pressure in recent weeks following the emergence of a previously unknown video taken from a police helicopter on the evening of the floods.