Costa del Sol torrential rain alert raised to orange

THE Spanish national weather service AEMET has increased its warning of heavy rain for Malaga and the Costa del Sol today to orange.

The notice covers the Costa del Sol, Axarquia and Guadalhorce areas and could see up to 30 litres of rain per square metre in one hour.

The warning will revert to yellow, up to 20 litres of rain per square metre in one hour, and apply until midday Monday.

The Ronda and Antequera regions are also on a yellow alert.

In the last 24 hours the 112 emergency services have responded to 520 weather-related incidents, mainly flooding of homes, commercial premises and subways.

Sevilla has been particularly hard hit with 443 incidents reported with Cádiz (34), Malaga (15), Huelva (15), Granada (8), Almeria (3) and Cordoba (2) also affected.