Two people were missing Saturday after torrential rains and floods in Catalonia in northeastern Spain.
Firefighters said they were searching along the banks and mouth of the Foix river for two people who went missing near the town of Cubelles, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Barcelona.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for “great caution” and urged people to avoid unnecessary travel in 10 northern and eastern regions that were on high alert on Saturday.
“We are closely monitoring the situation in several communities with warnings for heavy rains and storms,” Sanchez wrote on X.
The prime minister said troops from the Military Emergency Unit (UME) had already been deployed to municipalities in Aragon.
Heavy rains cause travel disruption
The national weather service, Aemet, said 10 centimeters (four inches) had fallen near Barcelona in a matter of hours.
Catalonia and the neighboring region of Aragon were under a red “extreme risk” alert due to rains that could see up to 60 liters per square meter fall in one hour, according to Aemet.
As a precautionary measure, Renfe, Spain’s rail company, briefly suspended services throughout Catalonia on Saturday.
In Barcelona, roads were blocked, while a hospital had to refuse patients after it flooded.
A plane that took off from the city for the United States was forced to turn back after sustaining damage to its nose in a hail storm.
In October 2024, heavy rains and devastating floods in the eastern region of Valencia killed 225 people in the worst meteorological disaster in Spain in decades.
That rain storm, like the one currently affecting the country, was caused by a weather phenomenon known in Spain as a “cold drop” or DANA (Isolated Depression at High Levels), in which a mass of cold air drops over the warmer waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
Edited by: Louis Oelofse
