THE Costa del Sol has been left reeling after Storm Francis wreaked havoc over the weekend, dumping up to 200mm of rain in some areas.
Aemet, the state weather service, even issued a rare red weather warning on Sunday afternoon, triggering an emergency alert sent to residents’ mobile phones.
In Estepona, a vehicle was swept away with no one inside after the normally calm Velerin River was transformed into a raging torrent of water.
In the province of Cadiz, the regional government ordered the evacuation of around 470 homes located downstream of the Guadarranque reservoir amid fears of flooding.
Those fears materialised in Monda, Malaga, where an entire apartment block had to be evacuated after it began to fill with floodwater.
READ MORE: Families evacuated in Malaga province as storm Francis tears through the region
In nearby Coin, located just 10km away, a bridge providing safe passage above the Rio Grande collapsed in the storm.
Dramatic footage shared on social media shows the La Valenciana bridge without its central section, swept away amid soaring water levels as the river burst its banks.
Elsewhere, a driver was rescued by emergency services from floodwater in a tunnel near Malaga Airport after becoming trapped in their car.
The spell of stormy weather comes just one week after three people died on the Costa del Sol while trying to cross swollen rivers.
According to Aemet, the wintery weather is set to continue with much of Spain under an alert for snowfall.
Large swathes of Andalucia, Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalunya, Asturias, Galicia and the Basque Country could see around 5cm of the white stuff fall, with heavier snow forecast at higher altitudes.
READ MORE: Milder winter ‘than normal’ predicted by weather forecasters in Spain
Footage shared online shows the historic city of Segovia, northwest of Madrid, blanketed as temperatures in central Spain dropped below freezing.
Elsewhere, a yellow alert remains in place between Almeria and Malaga for more rain.
Warnings are also set to be activated on Tuesday urging caution amid a sudden fall in temperatures, with the mercury plunging to around -10C across much of the peninsula.
In some areas near the Pyrenees, it could feel even colder with gusts of wind set to top 80km/h.
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