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Torrential rain in Spain, four months after deadly Valencia floods

The release date: 07/03/2025Source:RTE, Ireland 【The font::small medium big Print Close this page

 

Torrential rain has caused floods in eastern Spain that swept away cars as local authorities evacuated schools and closed roads. 

It comes four months after deadly flash floods in Valencia caused the deaths of more than 220 people. 

The state weather agency Aemet issued orange alerts for parts of the Murcia, Valencia and Catalonia regions on the Mediterranean coast as officials told people to stay indoors. 

Spaniards are still nervous after heavy rain last year caught authorities on the hop and caused the country's deadliest natural disaster in decades, with many blaming local and national officials for warning people of the danger too late. 

Images broadcast on a local television station showed a car being swept down the Lorca river in Murcia. 

A woman had to be rescued from the vehicle by firemen, La 7 television said. 

Another man had to be saved from his land with a tractor, La Sexta TV said. 

President of the Murcia region Fernando Lopez Miras said there had been no casualties although one person died when they were swept away in a flooded ravine earlier this week. 

"There was nothing to indicate that it was going to rain as it is raining," Mr Lopez Miras said on La Sexta. 

"Every day the ravines are accumulating more water and there are more flooded streets. The water won't stop and the Aemet's alerts hadn't forecast this would be so prolonged." 

The weather agency said that, in some areas, 120mm had fallen in 12 hours and some weather stations had experienced more rain in March than would normally be expected in all of the spring season. 

It said a new weather front coming from the west would mean the rain would continue across the country until the weekend.