These are the most shocking images from the monster floods hitting Europe

An 86-year old woman was found dead in her flooded house near Paris and a man on horseback drowned on Thursday.

Apparently the first two casualties in France from the heavy rains that caused the Loire and Seine rivers to burst their banks, Reuters reports.

Stranded motorists were rescued by soldiers as flood waters rose, while in Paris a metro line was shut and the Louvre museum closed.

At least five people have been killed in floods in southern Germany's Bavaria state and thousands of households were cut off from electricity, according to Reuters.

Firemen found the bodies of three women in the basement of a flooded house near Munich, and the body of a man at another property.

In a nearby village, emergency services discovered the body of a drowned woman draped over a tree trunk in a stream. At least four people were missing in the district of Rottal-Inn. "We're expecting the worst," police spokesman Michael Emmer told Reuters.