The 62-year-old has been left in a critical condition after being struck by lightning in Valencia, while a search was launched for two people near Barcelona after a river burst its banks
A woman is fighting for her life after being struck by lightning in Spain while she sheltered under a tree during a storm.
The 62-year-old was rushed to hospital in a “critical” condition along with her 22-year-old daughter, who suffered less serious injuries. Four police officers gave her CPR at the scene before she was taken from the scene unconscious. The incident unfolded around 12.30pm yesterday near to the Marina Real Juan Carlos I, a famous marina in Valencia.
The victims are both Russians living locally. The alarm was raised by the daughter, who was knocked by the impact of the strike from a wheelchair she was in following a recent operation.
She managed to crawl along the ground and ask for help from a man nearby.
Summer of extreme weather in Spain
The incident came amid another weekend of stormy weather in Spain, which has experienced extreme swings between heatwave conditions and heavy downpours this summer. Temperatures reached a sweltering 46C in the country last month, but this year has also seen an unusual amount of rainfall in some regions.
Yesterday, a search was launched for two people in Cubelles near Barcelona after the River Foix burst its banks as the area was hit by torrential rain. The operation to find them was continuing this morning.
A spokesman for the local fire brigade service said: “We have reactivated the search this morning at 8am for two people who according to witnesses fell into the river in Cubelles. Until the early hours of this morning the river has been checked without positive results.
The Red Cross in Catalonia said on X: “We are joining the search operation for two people carried away yesterday by the river in Cubelles.”
A disaster relief unit of Spain’s military was deployed to the northeastern city of Zaragoza after severe storms caused flooding across the province yesterday.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has urged people to avoid all unnecessary travel in 10 regions to the north and west which remain on high alert today. He wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “We are closely monitoring the situation in several communities with warnings for heavy rains and storms.”
The heavy storms that affected Spain’s east coast area also forced the closure of a hospital in Villafranca del Penedes a half-hour drive north of Cubelles after flooding left it without electricity. Trains in Spain’s north-east Catalonia region were suspended yesterday afternoon.
Some services started running again just after 7pm when the weather alert passed from red to orange, but around 150 people spent the night sleeping in Barcelona’s Sants Station because of the problems caused by the weather.
On Friday, a red alert was issued around the Ebro Riverbank in Tarazona, Zaragoza after nearly 100mm (3.9in) of rain fell in just one hour.
This is over three times the threshold for flood risk-causing torrential rain, which is 30mm of rain in one hour.