MADRID (Reuters) – Torrential rains across Spain’s Balearic islands have flooded roads, forced people to evacuate and flights to be cancelled, with Spain’s emergency military unit saying on Thursday it had been deployed to Mallorca to help with the situation.
Spanish national weather agency AEMET kept an orange alert on Thursday in the whole area due to the high risk of storms, having downgraded it from red earlier.
The emergency services said they expected the worst of the storm to have passed, having urged people on Wednesday to remain indoors.
“Forbidden to carry out outdoor activities,” read a post from the emergency services posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Regional firefighters said on X they had cordoned off areas in central Palma de Mallorca and evacuated 29 people from a train on the line between Palma and Manacor due to the flooding.
More than 50 flights were cancelled across airports in the Balearic Islands since the rainstorm started on Wednesday and delays are expected to continue, Spanish airport operator Aena said.
Civil Guard police said on Thursday they had evacuated a dozen people from Soller town in Mallorca due to the floods.
The regional emergency service said it had received around 180 calls on incidents related to the storms during the last 24 hours. Nine people were injured in the island of Formentera on Wednesday and a fisherman was rescued by Spanish coast guard, it added.
The Spanish emergency military unit (UME) said it had been deployed to assess the situation and provide support to civil authorities if necessary.
(Reporting by Ana Cantero; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
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