Military mobilised to rescue 600 drivers trapped by snow in Spain

The passage of storm Juan through Spain this Friday, from west to east, has caused numerous traffic complications with snow and flooding forcing the closure of several motorways and main roads.

The worst affected area was in Soria in the Castilla y León region, on the national N-122 road between the towns of Matalebreras and Ontalvilla de Valcorba. On the stretch between kilometre points 115 to 148, some 600 people were trapped in around 500 vehicles, which forced the authorities to call for the support of Spain's Military Emergency Unit (UME).

The fourth Emergency Intervention Battalion (BIEMIV), stationed in Zaragoza, w sent to the area to try to clear the road. The main problem faced by the rescue teams was the low temperatures. The province of Soria was this Friday at red level - the same category as this coming Saturday - due to low temperatures, which could reach 14 degrees below zero. According to the state weather agency (Aemet), it will be the only province in Spain to reach this severe risk warning level. One step below, at amber alert level, are Segovia, Lleida and Zaragoza, where there was a heavy snowfall on Friday that caused traffic chaos and the suspension of the Zaragoza-Andorra Second Division match due to the snow and the cold.

Due to the storm, a train was trapped in the town of Grisén, while the Directorate General of Interior and Emergencies of the Government of Aragón highlighted the problems that affected the A-2, A-23 and AP-68 roads - with cuts to some of them - and pointed out that it was going to continue snowing during the early hours of Saturday on the A-23 towards Teruel.

Vehicles also got stuck in the snow on the A-1 at Villarejo (Segovia) and the A-2 at Salinas de Medinaceli and Somaen (both in Soria). In Salamanca, on the A-66, lorries were forced to a halt in the early afternoon due to a storm between the towns of Béjar and Guijuelo.

In Extremadura, storm Juan left heavy rain on its journey across the region which, together with the water released by storm Irene earlier this week, caused the flooding of some twenty roads - including the A-5 near Mérida - and several urban and rural areas. In addition, eight reservoirs had to release water as they were close to the limit of their capacity.