Over 500 emergency calls around Catalonia due to heavy rains

While nowhere near as serious as the destructive flash floods that hit Catalonia in October, the heavy rain that fell all evening on Wednesday and into Thursday caused plenty of incidents and disruptions around the country.

By 10 am on Thursday, the 112 emergency telephone line had received a total of 589 calls to report some 428 incidents - 41% of them in the Barcelona area - related to the heavy rains, mostly flooded basements and fallen branches.

The rain also caused disruptions to transport, with two main roads closed in the Baix Empordà area, and another blocked by mudslides in the Montseny mountain range, while trains were out of service due to a fallen tree on the R3 line between Sant Quirze de Besora and Ripoll.

Meanwhile, trains on the R1 and RG1 lines between Vilassar and Mataró were running half an hour late due to a signalling failure, and the fire service said it had been called out 70 times to, among other incidents, remove obstacles from rail lines.

Flooding still a risk, says Civil Protection

The Civil Protection agency reported on Thursday morning that while the effects of the rain were clearing up, there was still a risk of flooding, after rainfall over 100 liters per meter was registered on the coast, and between 60 and 90 liters in Barcelona.

With the downpours at their heaviest late on Wednesday evening, Barcelona's underground metro system was particularly hard hit, with a number of partial or full closures of metro stops on lines 2, 3 and 4. 

The heavy rains also left over 4,000 residents without power in the city of Martorell, north of Barcelona, and 800 residents in Aldea, south of the Catalan capital. By mid-morning the fault in Martorell had been fixed, but the town in Tarragona province still had no electricity.