Two dead and one missing after storms in Catalonia

Two people have died and a third is missing after storms and torrential rain battered Spain’s Catalonia region.

A 75-year-old man was killed when a wall gave way at a campsite and collapsed on top of him in Tordera close to the Costa Brava coastline.

And firefighters confirmed around 10am on Sunday they had found the body of a second man in a flooded garage in Montornès del Vallès, also in the province of Barcelona.

They had been pumping out water from the garage in an attempt to rescue him after his family raised the alarm shortly after 7am.

Confirming the second death Catalan regional president Salvador Illa said on X: “I regret the death of a second person as a result of the storm. My condolences to their family.

“The situation continues to be complicated.”

The search for the person still missing on Sunday morning was focusing on a flooded river in Pineda de Mar an hour’s drive north of Barcelona, one of the areas where it has rained most over the weekend.

Civil Protection officials sent an alert to people’s phones warning them of the risk of the Besòs River, an 11-mile long river just north of Barcelona, overflowing.

The warning urged residents living nearby to avoid ground floors and basements and move to the upper floors of buildings in case of problems.

A red weather warning, the highest danger level, was sounded for heavy rain in areas of the Catalan provinces of Tarragona, Barcelona and Girona on Saturday.

An alert was sent to the population in around 20 areas warning of mobility restrictions due to an “exceptional” amount of expected rainfall.

Catalonia’s president warned: “This is no joke” as the dire alert was issued.

Nearly 18,000 people were left without electricity overnight in Barcelona and surrounding municipalities because of the bad weather.

On Friday a woman died and 90 people had to be rescued following flash floods in Madrigueras 120 miles north-west of Alicante.

The 102-year-old woman was found lifeless inside her home.

Floodwater inside the property is said to have reached a height of more than a metre.

Astonishing footage and photos published by police showed the carnage caused by the freak weather, with cars piled up on top of each other in the centre of the town as they were battered by a fast-moving river of water.

Residents looked on helpless from upper-floor balconies as streets were turned into rivers and cars carried away in the floodwater.

One man was filmed trying to take refuge behind his vehicle as it was caught in a violent rush of water caused by torrential rain.

The scenes were reminiscent of the horror memories of the Valencia dana two years ago that claimed the lives of 232 people including expat British pensioners Don and Terri Turner.

The 90 rescues were mainly evacuations of people who were trapped in their homes.

Last month a 48-year-old British man died after being swept away in his car in a flooded creek near his home in Olivella an hour’s drive south of Barcelona which is normally dry.

Horror footage showed his Volvo being swept away, prompting a search involving specialist divers and drones which ended with his body being discovered around 500 metres from his vehicle around 2.30am on 17 September.

The unnamed Brit was travelling alone at the time and is thought to have been trying to reach his nearby home.