THOUSANDS of people have been forced to evacuate as Storm Alice unleashed torrential rain and flash flooding in Spain.
Dramatic footage has emerged from the Tarragona province, showing cars piled up on top of each other in the nearby municipality of Godall.
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The deluge of water can be seen engulfing cars and sending any item not safely latched down flying through the water.
Strong currents of water have flooded the bottom levels of many homes, as residents and travellers have been urged to stay inside.
Overnight, Catalan sports centres were turned into shelter and aid points for motorists who had to delay their journeys as roads in the Tarragona province were flooded by torrential rain.
The Catalan regional government declared a state of emergency on Sunday in five districts, including in Tarragona, where the rain hit the hardest.
Part of the AP-7 motorway – which runs along Spain’s Mediterranean coast – was closed in both directions, as the road was turned into a river, trapping vehicles in the floodwater.
On Monday morning, a reported 1100 people had spent the night in temporary shelters opened by local councils after the storm battered the Terres de l’Ebre region on the lower course of the Ebre River.
Firefighters in the central command centre in Tortosa said 31 people had been rescued before 1am.
Fire chief David Borrell said that in some cases, the rescued people had been “at risk of death”.
Adding to the chaos, Renfe – Spanish train operator – suspended all trains departing from Barcelona and Valencia to the Mediterranean Corridor, after weather agency AEMET issued a red weather alert.
In a statement on social media platform X, Renfe said the trains were “suspended until further notice”.
The decision cancelled 17 trains, affecting 3000 people.
So far, there have been no reports of fatalities.
On Sunday night, town hall chiefs in Amposta, at the mouth of the Ebre River, warned locals and visitors to remain indoors.
In a message posted to social media just before 10pm, officials said: “Don’t go out onto the street under any circumstances”.
“If your home is flooded, go to higher floors.”
The town hall announced another municipal centre had been opened as a temporary shelter.
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The shelter was already housing 650 people who had been trapped by the torrential rain, cutting short their journeys.
A spokesman said: “They are being given food, water and blankets so they can spend the night in the best possible conditions.”
One man who had taken shelter in a petrol station with his family after the torrential rain forced them to pull off the motorway told local media: “Police had to come and rescue us in the end”.
“We saw hundreds and hundreds of cars trapped on the motorway who looked like they were going to have to spend the night there,” he added.
“There will be thousands and thousands of people affected.”
The man said “many streets in Amposta had become impassable”.
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“They looked more like rivers.”
On Monday morning, Mayor Alexis Albiol said: “It was chaos, we’ve never seen anything like it.”
Southern Catalonia has been the latest Spanish region to experience Storm Alice’s devastating effects, following similar scenes in Ibiza on Saturday and before that provinces including Murcia in south-east Spain.
Ibiza had suffered heavy flooding during a previous storm just over a week earlier, causing popular beachside clubs to close.
Army reinforcements were sent to the Balearic island for the second time in less than a fortnight after the heavens opened again at the weekend.
The flooding forced Ibiza airport to close as rainwater seeped through the ceiling.