MADRID (Reuters) – Four people died in Spain when Storm Filomena caused travel chaos across the country, covered Madrid with the heaviest snowfall in decades and authorities forced to mobilize troops to rescue trapped motorists.
Rescue services reached 1,500 people trapped in cars as skiers glided down the Gran Via, normally one of the capital’s busiest streets. Other residents of Madrid used the freak snowstorm to snowboard the road or to throw snowballs at each other.
A man and a woman traveling in a car drowned after a river burst its banks near Malaga, southern Spain, and two homeless people froze to death, one in Madrid and the other in the eastern city of Calatayud, authorities say. .
In response to the events, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia tweeted, “The royal family wants to express their sorrow for the victims of the storm … and call for extreme caution against the risks of ice and snow build-up.”
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska urged the Spaniards to avoid anything but necessary travel. “We are facing the most intense storm of the last 50 years,” he said.
More than 650 roads were blocked by snow, Grande-Marlaska said, leaving some drivers stuck in their cars from Friday night to Saturday.
Patricia Manzanares, who has been trapped in her car on the M-40 motorway in Madrid since 7pm on Friday, told RTVE television: “I’m stuck here without water or any other help.”
Aena, who manages the country’s airports, said Madrid’s Barajas airport, which was closed Friday night, would remain closed for the remainder of Saturday. It said at least 50 flights to Madrid, Malaga, Tenerife and Ceuta, a Spanish area in North Africa, have been canceled.
The State Meteorological Agency said it was the heaviest snowfall in Madrid since 1971, while José Miguel Viñas, a meteorologist from the Spanish National Radio, said that between 25 cm and 50 cm (10-20 inches) had fallen in the capital. , what he said made it the biggest snowfall since 1963.
Atletico Madrid’s game against Athletic Bilbao, which was due to start on Saturday at 3:15 pm GMT, has been postponed, La Liga said in a statement.
Reporting by Graham Keeley; Editing by Frances Kerry and David Holmes