Spain shovels its way out of heavy snow dumped by Storm Filomena

People walk through snow in Madrid’s Puerta de Alcala square (Manu Fernandez/AP)

Emergency crews in central Spain have cleared 500 roads and rescued more than 1,500 people stranded in vehicles as the country slowly shovels its way out of its worst snowstorm in recent memory.

After recording 20 inches of snow in the Spanish capital between Friday night and Saturday, Madrid and a large swathe of the country remained impassable, with roads, rail lines and air travel disrupted by Storm Filomena. The blizzard has been blamed for four deaths.