At least four people, including a volunteer firefighter and a teenage girl, have died after floods in southwestern Germany.

Storms and torrential rain have caused chaos in parts of Baden-Wuerttemberg state, with pictures showing cars being washed away by swirling floodwater.

Officials in Schwaebisch Gmuend, near Stuttgart, said the firefighter who was killed had died trying to save someone near the town's train station.

The person he was attempting to rescue also died, said state interior ministry spokesman Carsten Dehner.

Elsewhere in the state, a 13-year-old girl, who police say was probably sheltering from the rain under a railway bridge, was struck by an intercity train.

Another victim, aged around 60, was found in a flooded underground car park in Weissbach, near Heilbronn.

Mr Dehner said the man was unable to escape when water quickly engulfed the garage.

Around 7,000 firefighters, police officers and rescue workers have been dealing with more than 2,200 incidents, according to Baden-Wuerttemberg authorities.

The heavy rain on Sunday evening and overnight into Monday meant several people had to be plucked to safety from their cars.

German news agency DPA also reported a house was destroyed and others damaged in Braunsbach after a river broke its banks.

Officials in one part of Schwaebisch Hall district said there had been more rain in a few hours than normally falls in several months.