Emergency crews battle Spain floods as towns loved by British tourists left underwater
People have been trapped in their cars while several airports are at a standstill as torrential downpours rock Spain.
Heavy flooding has wreaked havoc in the city of Murcia in Spain, and now emergency crews have been deployed to rescue people caught up in the extreme conditions.
Torrential rain has hit the Murcia region and Costa Blanca area, one of the busiest places in Spain for British tourism.
Many tourists were stuck in Palma Airport, Majorca after over 100 planes were delayed or cancelled as a result of the weather.
Spain's emergency services now report that they have had to respond to over 200 callouts in Costa Blanca.
Meanwhile, in Murcia, 113 emergency calls were made after people got stuck in cars during the floods.
READ MORE: Spanish tourist hotspot hit by massive flooding with 'people trapped'
Water follows gravity in Murcia, Spain, as humanity loses all sense of the gravity of this situation.
— George Tsakraklides (@99blackbaloons) June 13, 2024
Every day is disaster day. The #ClimateCrisis never takes a holiday. #flood
pic.twitter.com/QBS2BP0DUA
Video footage at Palma Airport showed one of the runways flooded by rainwater. A member of staff was even seen diving into the water to show how deep it was.
Footage also showed water leaking through the ceiling duty-free.
In Costa Blanca, hail stones fell in Valencia while the popular destination of Benidorm is on a yellow weather alert.
Spain isn't the only part of Europe experiencing dreadful weather. Equally extreme conditions have been seen in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus.
Extreme heat is also hitting these Mediterranean and Aegean Sea countries, with temperatures reaching a scorching 43 degrees.
In Cyprus, the heat led to wildfires while in Turkey temperatures are consistently between eight and 12 degrees above normal at this time of year.
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In Greece, the famous Athens Acropolis has been closed during the hottest part of the day.
Experts have highlighted the role of climate change in the adverse weather conditions seen across Europe.
Dr Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, which has produced the report in conjunction with the World Meteorological Organisation, warned that 2023's unpredictable weather across Europe is a sign of things to come.
She told Sky News last month: "2023 was really an exceptional year.
"Europe is the fastest warming continent, with temperatures rising at about twice the average rate [and] with the three warmest years on record all occurring since 2020.
"We know in a warmer climate we will get more heatwaves and those heatwaves will be more intense. We also know in a warmer climate the atmosphere can hold more moisture, which will mean storm events will be more intense."
