SEVILLA has closed its floodgates for just the second time in history as Storm Leonardo continues to send river levels surging towards bursting point across Spain.
The local council say the decision was taken as a precautionary measure amid fears that the Guadalquivir River could burst its banks.
The city remains under a yellow weather warning for wind with gusts forecast to exceed 70km/h – but the rain has subsided, with clear skies returning and temperatures climbing to around 18C.
The floodgates, built in 2011 to provide a watertight seal in case of dangerous flooding, were closed at 9am this morning.
It is just the second time that the gates – 11.5 metres wide and four metres tall – have been closed since they were installed, with the flood defences also shut last March after Storm Laurence brought torrential rainfall to the area.
Parts of Sevilla and the surrounding countryside remain at extreme risk to flooding, according to Google’s flood risk monitoring service.
Jose Luis Sanz, the mayor of Sevilla, says the storm has upped the river’s flow to around 1,600 cubic metres per second after reaching a peak of 1,000 cubic metres per second on Wednesday.
The river’s limit is around 3,000 cubic metres per second.
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