British holidaymakers hoping to leave behind the rain by heading to Spain have been met with torrential downpours, hail, strong winds and flash floods.
Images from Costa Blanca showed submerged streets, overflowing rivers, and fast-moving water barrelling across dry fields before crashing onto highways.
Hail stones have fallen in some parts of the Valencian community, which includes the provinces of Alicante and Valencia, with more predicted today, while Benidorm is on a yellow storm alert with the possibility of rain put at 100 per cent.
Further south in Murcia roads have been turned into raging torrents. In its capital city locals and tourists were pictured ankle-deep in water in its main street as they tried to negotiate their way past shops while others took refuge inside.
Elsewhere in the province cars were seen and wheelie bins were seen ‘swimming’ down streets which looked more like rivers. Firefighters were said to be ‘working tirelessly’ with roads closed in some places.
Several regions across south-east Spain ‘s have been hit with torrential rain, hail and strong winds causing flash floods and forcing the closure of roads. Pictured: A car is seen half submerged in waters in the city of Murcia
Images from Costa Blanca showed submerged streets (pictured), overflowing rivers, and fast-moving water barrelling across dry fields before crashing onto highways
Water is seen gushing down the streets of Murcia on Monday as the south-eastern region of Spain was hit by torrential rain
Water is seen flowing down a street in Murcia on Monday amid the rainstorms
Local media reported that emergency response officials had clocked over 320 incidents relating to the weather as of Monday night.
The region most affected has been Spain’s eastern Levante area, which includes Valencia, Benidorm, Alicante and Murcia – a popular area for British tourists.
Reports said the Valencian Community and the Region of Murcia had been especially impacted. According to the Eltiempo news outlet, over 60 millimetres of rain had fallen around the city of Murcia, leaving vehicles trapped.
Tree branches were also reported to have fallen on tram tracks in Murcia.
One picture showed a car almost completely submerged on a roundabout.
As of 10pm last night, the Murcia Plaza outlet said there were yet to be any reports of injuries.
There were reports of people having to be rescued from their vehicles.
The storms come at a time when many Brits will be jetting off for holidays to escape what has so-far been a disappointing spring.
Temperatures across the UK on Tuesday were forecast to peak at around 15 degrees, lower than many will have been hoping for at this time of year.
Still, the British weather will be preferable to that being seen in Costa Blanca and other regions along Spain’s eastern Mediterranean coast this week.
Towns like Yecla, on Murcia’s north-east border with Alicante, are among the places where high temperatures and blue skies have given way to amazing scenes of hailstones and gusting winds in the past few hours.
A Spanish weather website, flagging up large parts of eastern Spain including the Costa Blanca, warned this morning: ‘In the next few hours storms will dump dozens of litres of water and hail on these areas in a very short space of time. Be careful.’
It said: ‘The forecasts proved to be correct and yesterday storms erupted forcefully in parts of the east and centre of the peninsula.
‘In the next few hours intense downpours will gain protagonism in several areas.
The yellow storm and rain alert in place for the Costa Blanca over the next couple of days, as well as the Balearic Islands of Ibiza and Majorca for today only, is not set to be lifted until Thursday.
The region most affected has been Spain’s eastern Levante area, which includes Valencia, Benidorm, Alicante and Murcia (pictured) – a popular area for British tourists
Storm clouds are seen over the city of Murcia as the region was battered by rain and floods
Emergency responders work to pump water out of a building in Murcia
Bad sea conditions on the Costa Blanca ahead of this week’s flooding were blamed for a string of drownings in the province of Alicante last week and over the weekend.
One of the victims was a 52-year-old British holidaymaker who died on Friday after going to the aid of two children in the water at La Roqueta beach just north of Torrevieja. A 46-year-old Polish man who also tried to help them drowned too.
By contrast British holidaymakers on the Costa del Sol were today basking in glorious sunshine.
In Marbella, where today is a local Bank Holiday coinciding with the resort’s annual feria festival, tourists were topping up their tans under blue skies in 26 degrees Celsius temperatures (78 degrees Fahrenheit).
It made a welcome break for those who had just flown in from the UK.
Office worker Sally Jones, 26, said: ‘I was in desperate need of sunshine. The weather’s been really gloomy back home.
‘I’ve got friends who are on the Costa Blanca right now and are saying they wished they’d come on holiday with me instead.’
Spain is not the first Mediterranean country to have been hit with extreme flooding this year, after Italy was also struck by flash floods at the end of May.
In one heartbreaking incident, three friends were caught in a flash flood and swept away – after sharing a final embrace.
Tragic footage posted on X showed Patrizia Cormos, 20, her friend Bianca Doros, 23, and her boyfriend Cristian Molnar, 25, standing thigh deep in a churning river.
Spain is not the first Mediterranean country to have been hit with extreme flooding this year, after Italy was also struck by flash floods at the end of May. Pictured: The tragic moment three friends were seen hugging each other seconds before being swept away during the floods
Pictured are Patrizia Cormos, 20, Cristian Molnar, 25, and his girlfriend Bianca Doros, 23 – the three friends who were swept away in flood waters in Italy at the end of May
The chief of the provincial firefighters in Udinehe, Giorgio Basile, told The Telegraph he threw them a rope in a desperate attempt to rescue the group.
But tragically they were ‘swallowed up by the flood waters’ as he watched and he saw them ‘disappear’ on May 31.
Two bodies, believed to be Ms Cormos and Ms Doros, were discovered 1km from the spot they were last seen. The search is still continuing for Mr Molnar, with the fire service vowing: ‘We won’t stop until we find the third missing person.’
It was reported on Saturday that the lawyer for the family of Molnar had slammed the emergency services, saying if they had responded when the first emergency call had been put in, the trio could still be alive.