The damage caused by devastating floods in Germany last week is likely to cost the insurance industry up to five billion euros ($5.9 billion), the GDV insurance industry association said on Wednesday.

The bank of the river Rhine is seen flooded in Cologne, western Germany, on July 15, 2021. Flooding in the western German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia due to persistent rainfall has left at least 58 people dead and dozens missing, local media reported. (Photo by Tang Ying/Xinhua)

"We are currently expecting insured losses of four to five billion euros," Joerg Asmussen, chief executive of the GDV, said in a statement, calling the disaster "one of the most devastating storms in recent history".