A MAN has died and two others remain missing after torrential rain triggered severe flooding across Costa del Sol on Sunday, forcing hundreds to flee their homes.
The victim was found dead in Cartama, west of Malaga, around 5pm. He had been reported missing from Alhaurin el Grande alongside another man just a few hours earlier.
Police believe the men, aged 53 and 54, attempted to cross the swollen Fahala river on foot after realising they could not continue their journey by car – but were eventually swept up and carried downstream by the storm-fed waters.
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Search efforts are ongoing for the second traveller, authorities say, as well as for another man who vanished from Illora, in Granada, after trying to cross a stream in his motorbike yesterday around 10.30am.
The tragedy came as torrential rain and heavy hail battered Malaga province in the early hours of Sunday, causing the Guadalhorce river to overflow and damaging more than 80 homes and businesses as well as around 40 vehicles in the area.
Fuelled by the storm, the river burst its banks after rising to a historic high of nearly six metres.
Residents in 27 municipalities – including Malaga, Cartama, Alhaurin el Grande, and Coin – received emergency alerts on their phones urging them to move to higher ground.
Locals described a night of terror in Cartama as floodwaters gushed into their homes.
Resident Miguel Luque told MalagaHoy: “You hear the rain and hail falling and it feels like the world is about to end.”
Another local, Juani Olmedo, lost his car in the flash flooding but said he was grateful to have suffered only material damage.
“I have never seen so much water,” he said.
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The storm that hit Malaga province was part of a broader red alert event declared by Spain’s weather agency AEMET for Costa del Sol and Guadalhorce Valley on Sunday.
AEMET warned of extreme rainfall risk of up to 120 litres per square metre in 12 hours.
As the rain died down, the alert was later downgraded to orange and then yellow.
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