Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in the Costa del Sol after a red weather alert was issued for extreme rain and flooding.
Both residents and holidaymakers were warned ‘there is an extreme risk’ by Spain’s Civil Protection Agency just after 10pm last night.
The text alert said: ‘Red warning activated. Extreme risk of rainfall. Be very cautious, avoid travel.’
The area, including tourist resorts of Marbella and Estepona, is expected to take the brunt of the extreme weather phenomenon known as a DANA.
It is a cold drop which was the cause of the catastrophic flash floods which killed more than 200 people in and around the east coast city of Valencia alone.
All schools in the Malaga province have also shut, and a preventative evacuation of 3,000 people living near the Guadalhorce River has already begun.
It is one of the worst-affected areas during torrential rainfall and storms a fortnight ago which were blamed for the death of a 71-year-old British expat.
The red weather alert is set to remain until midnight, with rainfall not expected to start until 10am.
Regional government representative Antonio Sanz admitted last night as he announced the residential evacuations and today’s school closures: ‘The situation for the province of Malaga is of extreme risk.
‘The forecast was that we were going to be on yellow alert but weather agency Aemet has raised this to red.’
Locals were pictured yesterday afternoon boarding up the doors to their homes or laying sandbags in front of them as they prepared for what was to come.
Overnight in some coastal areas cars were spotted with plastic sheeting wrapped tight around them.
People also started stockpiling, with reports of supermarkets in parts of Malaga being emptied of products like mineral water and meat.
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