At least four people are missing after torrential rains caused flash flooding across southern and eastern Spain, hitting popular holiday resorts.
Some areas across the Costa Del Sol, and further north in Valencia on the Costa Blanca, got a month’s worth of rain on Tuesday, as mud-colored waters carried away cars and cut off roads and rail connections.
Emergency services workers are looking for “around four” people who are missing in the wake of the flash floods, Letur Mayor Sergio Marin Sanchez told Spanish public television. “We couldn’t have predicted anything like this was going to happen. It’s a major catastrophe.”
A lorry driver disappeared on Tuesday afternoon in the town of L’Alcudia in the Valencia region, while in the Paiporta area a bridge was filmed collapsing into the river. On Tuesday evening, the entire province of Valencia, which has a population of 5.5 million, was told to avoid travel.
In the southern region of Andalusia, a high-speed train with 276 passengers derailed, although no one was injured, the regional government said. Emergency services also rescued scores of people in Alora in Andalusia, some by helicopter, after a river overflowed.
Spain’s weather agency AEMET has declared a red alert in the eastern Valencia region and the second-highest level of alert in parts of Andalusia in the south. National rail infrastructure operator ADIF said it had suspended high-speed trains between Madrid and Valencia as a result of the storm.
An emergency rescue brigade of Spain’s army has been deployed to help with rescue efforts. The storms are forecast to continue through Thursday. Scientists say extreme weather events like these are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Meteorologists believe the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rain more severe
