Ferocious storms lash Spain with 'two swept away' by flash floods, waterspouts lashing the coast and a woman struck by lightning… as wildfires close in on tourist hotspot
The Cubelles town hall said in a statement late on Sunday that specialist rescue teams and drones had been deployed to scour the coastline by land, sea and air.
A woman and a young girl are believed to have been carried away by the Foix River, running through Cubelles, while crossing a wooden footbridge late on Saturday.
The mayor said that water flow through the town had reached 200 cubic metres per second, destroying a bridge and leaving residents without running water.
At the height of the rainfall, the Foix surged to 400 square metres per second.
Video shared on social media showed waterspouts forming along the coast by Cubelles over the weekend. Others appeared near Valencia and Tarragona.
Aragon, to the West, saw 72 litres of rain per square metre in one town and as many as 4,631 lightning strikes across three provinces.
A 22-year-old woman was 'injured by lightning' in Valencia, to the south, and taken to hospital before being discharged on Sunday, hospital sources told Europa Press.
Storms ultimately forced a flight from Barcelona to the U.S. to turn around moments after takeoff on Saturday, as a violent hailstorm damaged the nose of the plane.
As Catalonia grapples with the 'DANA' cold drop, Spain's arid south saw temperatures push towards 40C, with a forest fire breaking out near a popular tourist hotspot.
The forest fire in Mijas broke out in the early hours of Sunday morning, sweeping through Mijas Golf, an area popular with tourists, according to the Spanish Eye.
The fire began shortly before 1am on Sunday morning and had been brought under control by 7.25am, according to Spain's EFE news agency and the Andalusian Forest Firefighting Service.
The fire service said that the blaze had been stabilised in just under an hour, but teams were still working to fully extinguish it by daybreak.
A fire in Villanueva de la Concepcion, a town north of Malaga, took 25 hours to be extinguished after a dozen aircraft were brought in to assist fire crews.
Teams had brought the inferno under control on Saturday afternoon while fighting against winds of up to 60kmh (37mph).
The south of Spain has been lashed by fires since the first major heatwaves in June. More than 21,000 hectares of land have burned so far this year.
The national weather agency, AEMET, said last month that it was the country's hottest June on record.
Two people died in a wildfire on July 1 in the region of Catalonia, where Tarragona is located.
Firefighters from the GRAE team carry out searches on the coast on Sunday
Catalonia has experienced turbulent weather, with a cold drop bringing torrential rain and storms to the region in recent days.
Meteocat, the Catalan Weather Service, issued its highest possible warning for most of the autonomous community on Saturday, and a phone alert was sent to residents warning of the approaching storms.
At its worst, more than 100 litres of rain per square metre were recorded in Vilafranca del Penedès and Igualada on Friday and Saturday.
Barcelona province saw 3,198 lightning strikes on Saturday, of a total 16,099 recorded by AEMET. The agency noted many struck the sea.
The city itself activated a flood alert and suspended planned outdoor activities.
The elevated Tibidabo amusement park was among the attractions closed, local media reports.
A Barcelona local said today roads remained dangerous after flash floods.
A hospital in the city was flooded and had to refuse patients, roads were blocked, and a plane that took off from Barcelona for the United States had to turn back after its nose was damaged by hail.
Cubelles, a town to the south of Barcelona, also saw major disruption as the Foix River burst its banks.
Sònia, the owner of a pizzeria, told Catalan News: 'As soon as the phone alert came, the water followed, rising from just a couple of centimetres to half a metre within moments'.
The Mayor has stated that no missing persons report has yet been lodged for the two presumed missing, but authorities are urging anyone with information to get in touch.
Spain's weather service said about 10 centimetres (four inches) of rain fell in the space of several hours near Barcelona.
The Renfe train company suspended all train travel throughout Catalonia for a few hours as a precaution, before resuming service later in the day.
Last October, torrential rains sparked devastating floods in the eastern province of Valencia, killing 225 people and causing widespread destruction, the country's deadliest such disaster in decades.
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