The death toll from floods across a large part of southern Germany rose to six on Wednesday as police recovered the body of a woman missing since the weekend from a canal in Bavaria.

The 79-year-old failed to return home after being seen on a bicycle in Jettingen-Scheppach, near the city of Augsburg, on Sunday. A local resident spotted her body in a canal on Wednesday, police said.

Persistent heavy rain led to widespread flooding over the weekend. While the situation has now eased in southwestern Germany, water levels are only gradually beginning to recede along the Danube in eastern Bavaria.

The bodies of four people who died in the floods were found Sunday and Monday, three of them in inundated basements. Police reported a fifth victim, a driver whose body was recovered from a submerged car, on Tuesday.