Dozens of patients were forced to evacuate a hospital in Spain as the country was battered by heavy rain and flooding.
At least 71 people fled Penedès Regional Hospital, south west of Barcelona, as streets across Catalonia turned to rivers following flash floods on Saturday, according to Spanish media.
More than half of Spain’s 50 provinces were under weather warnings over the weekend as torrential rain brought chaos to streets, businesses and holiday plans.
Spain’s weather forecaster AEMET issued severe storm warnings for Huesca, Teruel and Zaragoza, Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona, and Castellón.
Health minister Olga Pané told Catalan News: “We have decided to evacuate and transfer the 71 patients to the hospitals of Sant Camil, Bellvitge, Igualada, Sant Boi, and Viladecans.”
Ms Pané said the hospital’s electricity supply was cut off after a wall collapsed during the torrential downpour.
In Cubelles, a town 30 miles from Barcelona, a witness claimed to have seen a woman and child swept away by floodwater after they fell into the swollen Foix river.
Firefighters rushed to searched the river overnight, with underwater units, helicopters and drone teams scouring the area.
At least 155mm of rain fell in Barcelona on Saturday in just two or three hours, according to AEMET. In Navarra, 97mm of rainfall was recorded. Heavy rain was also recorded in Zaragoza and Girona.
Footage showed vehicles trapped under murky water, with some vehicles swept away by rivers flowing down streets.
One video captured cars drifting along the swollen El Cardener river after it burst its banks, while others were seen completely submerged.
Spain’s Military Emergency Unit (UME), a branch of the army responsible for disaster relief, was also deployed to Zaragoza to assist with emergency response efforts.
Rosa Montserrat Fonoll, mayor of Cubelles, said: “I’ve never seen anything like this in Cubelles”. She added that 200 cubic meters per second flowed through the town.
Ms Fonoll said some residents were still without electricity or running water, and others were unable to leave their homes. At the peak of the storm, emergency services received 1,200 calls.
The storm was caused by a DANA (High-level Isolated Depression). They can cause sudden shifts in weather, bringing intense rainfall and storms within minutes.
Last year, a similar weather event caused devastating floods in Valencia, leading to the death of 227 people.
