Heat and low Rhine water levels lead to more trucks on German autobahns on Sundays

With few exceptions, German motorways have been closed to heavy trucks on Sundays for 70 years.

Exceptions to the rule have sometimes been made, including during the coronavirus pandemic, and now the heat and drought in Europe have reopened truck traffic on Sundays and holidays in some German states.

North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Lower Saxony - some of the states most affected by the low water levels of the Rhine - will allow trucks on the motorways every day of the week from now until at least August, reports Tagesschau.

The relief coincides with many Germans returning home from their vacations, and the motoring organisation ADAC warns of long queues.