MADRID (Reuters) -Homes were flooded and roads turned into muddy rivers after torrential rainfall over the Spanish Canary Island of Lanzarote, a popular year-round tourist destination. A state of emergency was declared after 6 cm (2.4 inches) of rain fell in two hours on Saturday, emergency services said on Sunday. Dramatic video footage showed a […]
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Spain’s Lanzarote island hit by flooding after torrential rain
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MADRID (Reuters) -Homes were flooded and roads turned into muddy rivers after torrential rainfall over the Spanish Canary Island of Lanzarote, a popular year-round tourist destination.
A state of emergency was declared after 6 cm (2.4 inches) of rain fell in two hours on Saturday, emergency services said on Sunday.
Dramatic video footage showed a surge of brown flood water streaming under a bridge while bystanders took pictures and cars were stuck on flooded roads.
Enrique Espinosa, head of emergency services for the Lanzarote government, said some homes had been submerged.
“We have been working all night, attending 300 calls overnight, many of them in Arrecife and Teguise. Some houses are flooded and what remains is a great quantity of mud,” Espinosa told RTVE state television on Sunday.
No one has been injured in the flooding, authorities said.
(Reporting by Graham Keeley, Silvio Castellanos; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)