A 10-year-old Spanish boy has been rescued after clinging to a tree for eight hours to escape the flood waters that have claimed at least five lives as much of the country was lashed by record heavy rains over the weekend.
The boy’s family were staying at their holiday home in Aldea del Fresno, to the west of Madrid, when the storm hit on Sunday. Alarmed by the flash flooding, they climbed into their car late on Sunday night but soon found themselves swept away. The boy was found, dirty and bruised but still alive, the following morning – as were his mother and sister. His father is still missing.
“The poor boy spent the night perched in a tree,” Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the president of the Madrid region, told reporters.
Two people died in the central province of Toledo as a result of the storm, the head of the regional government of Castilla La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, said, without giving details.
Spanish media said a man was found dead by police during a rescue attempt on a road near the town of Bargas while another man died as rescuers tried to reach him in the town of Casarrubios del Monte. He is thought to have drowned in a lift as he tried to access the garage where his car was parked.
Police announced on Monday afternoon that the body of a man in his 50s was found near a river in the town of Camarena, also in the province of Toledo.
Meanwhile, two people who had gone climbing in Huesca province, in north-eastern Spain, also died in the heavy rains. Three people are still missing.
People in Madrid were alerted to the emergency on Sunday by a loud alarm and a text message that was sent to their mobile phones. It was the first time the authorities had used this mobile phone alert system.
Several theatres closed early on Sunday, and the day’s football match between Atlético Madrid and Sevilla was suspended.
A number of metro lines were closed in Madrid during the morning rush hour on Monday due to flooding caused by heavy overnight rains, although by the mid-afternoon they were all open again.
High-speed rail links between Madrid and the southern region of Andalucía and the east coast region of Valencia, which closed on Sunday, reopened on Monday although trains were running at slower speeds in some sections, the railway operator Renfe said.
The heavy rainfall eased on Monday morning, prompting the state meteorological office, Aemet, to lower its alert level for the Madrid region from red to yellow.
• Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
