Two killed in Spain storms

Two people have died in the torrential rain and high winds which have lashed Spain’s east coast and Balearic islands, flooding roads and washing out a bridge, officials said today.

The damage caused by swollen rivers and gullies Thursday and Friday around the eastern cities of Alicante and Valencia prompted Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso to send in the army’s emergency services, regional government spokesman Serafin Castellano said.

One woman died Friday in El Vergel, near Alicante, when a wall of water six feet high rushed through her house, Castellano said.

A 40-year-old man who had been kite-surfing during the storm died Friday when a gust of wind crashed him into a building at Playa d’en Bossa beach on the Balearic island of Ibiza, the emergency services there said.

A three-story building that had been evacuated by emergency services at El Vergel collapsed and was swept away by the Girona river, and a nearby bridge at Beniarbeig was also demolished by the torrent Castellano said.