Spain: torrential rains kill two people near Barcelona and keep the region on alert

The torrential rains which fell on eastern Spain and kept the city of Barcelona and its surroundings on alert have left two dead, authorities said on Sunday, who warned of the risk of flooding and overflowing rivers. “It appears that there are two fatal victims, as well as at least one person missing,” David Borrell, the fire chief of the Catalonia region (north-east), said at a press conference.

One of the victims died after a wall collapsed at a campsite in Tordera, the other drowned in a flooded garage in Montornès del Vallès, two towns in the province of Barcelona. “It is necessary to exercise the greatest caution and follow the recommendations” of the emergency services, insisted X the president of the region of Catalonia, Salvador Illa.

Faced with the arrival of the rainy episode, which began on Saturday afternoon, the authorities asked residents of the areas likely to be most affected to stay at home and canceled public events. “The situation of extreme danger continues in certain areas of Barcelona and Girona. During the night, more than 100 liters per m2 accumulated in many places,” the Spanish meteorological agency Aemet said on Sunday morning on X.

During the night, emergency services came to the aid of people stuck in their vehicles due to flooding in streets in Granollers, north of Barcelona, ​​and in other towns. Spanish Civil Protection sent a message to the cell phones of people living near the Besós River on Sunday morning, warning of a “risk of overflow” and asking, if this happened, to go to the “upper floors” of their homes.

The storm had already forced the cancellation of the demonstration for the right to housing in Barcelona on Saturday, as part of mobilizations organized in dozens of cities in Spain, such as in Madrid where tens of thousands of people gathered. The rains falling on Barcelona are due to a meteorological phenomenon characterized by “very violent and persistent showers and thunderstorms” in eastern Spain, which began on Thursday and should end this Sunday, according to Aemet.

This meteorological phenomenon has already caused the death of a 102-year-old woman on Saturday, swept away by floods in a locality in the Castile-La Mancha region, in the south-east of the country.