16 Aug, 2024 @ 15:18
1 min read

Watch: Dramatic moment police in helicopters rescue locals and pets trapped by freak summer floods in Spain – including a 102-year-old woman

THIS is the dramatic moment police in Spain launched a rescue operation amid freak summer floods in the Balearic Islands.

Videos shared by the Guardia Civil show helicopters flying above a large area of flooded land on the island of Menorca on Thursday.

It came after a so-called DANA weather front brought severe storms and rainfall, causing rivers and streams to overflow.

The footage shows agents being lowered down to multiple homes before carrying residents and their pets up to the helicopter hovering above.

Another clip shows a family being rescued from a car that was part-submerged in muddy water.

In a press release the force said: “Officers evacuated a family from inside a vehicle that had broken down due to the accumulation of water in Alaior.

“They also carried out the rescue of the occupants of a vehicle that was overturned and being dragged by the water current in the town of Es Mercadal.

“They then helped two women aged 102 and 90, both with reduced mobility due to their homes being flooded with water, in the town of Es Mercadal.”

It continued: “They proceeded to evacuate nine adults and two minors from a flooded penthouse
with the possibility of the roof collapsing due to the accumulated water.

“Several patrols carried out the evacuation of 31 people from the upper floor of a Nursing Home.”

It added: “The Guardia Civil Air Service, together with GREIM agents intervened in the rescue of 16 people, among whom was an elderly lady in need of her medication, nine minors and five pets.

“The people were rescued when they were already on the roof of their homes due to the large volume of water that was already flooding their homes.”

Laurence Dollimore

Laurence Dollimore is a Spanish-speaking, NCTJ-trained journalist with almost a decade’s worth of experience.
The London native has a BA in International Relations from the University of Leeds and and an MA in the same subject from Queen Mary University London.
He earned his gold star diploma in multimedia journalism at the prestigious News Associates in London in 2016, before immediately joining the Olive Press at their offices on the Costa del Sol.
After a five-year stint, Laurence returned to the UK to work as a senior reporter at the Mail Online, where he remained for two years before coming back to the Olive Press as Digital Editor in 2023.
He continues to work for the biggest newspapers in the UK, who hire him to investigate and report on stories in Spain.
These include the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mail Online, Mail on Sunday and The Sun and Sun Online.
He has broken world exclusives on everything from the Madeleine McCann case to the anti-tourism movement in Tenerife.

GOT A STORY? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es or call +34 951 273 575 Twitter: @olivepress

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Romance scam sees woman in Spain pay €140,000 to who she believed was her lover recovering in a US hospital
Previous Story

Romance scam sees woman in Spain pay €140,000 to who she believed was her lover recovering in a US hospital

Next Story

Residents of picturesque town in Spain will vote on banning ALL tourists after ‘becoming trapped in their homes by selfie-obsessed holidaymakers’

Latest from Balearic Islands

Go toTop

More From The Olive Press