MADRID (Reuters) – Four people have died in Spain as storm Filomena has wreaked havoc across the country, covering Madrid in the heaviest snow in decades and forcing authorities to mobilize troops to rescue stranded drivers.
Rescue services reached 1,500 people trapped in cars, while skiers slipped on Gran Via, normally one of the busiest streets in the capital. Other residents of Madrid used the strange blizzard to snowboard on the road or to dress each other with snowballs.
A man and a woman traveling in a car drowned after a river broke out on its banks near Malaga in southern Spain, and two homeless people froze to death, one in Madrid and the other in the eastern city. Calatayud, authorities said.
Responding to the events, King Philip VI and Queen Letizia wrote on Twitter: “The royal family would like to express their grief for the victims of the storm … and call for extreme caution against the risks of ice and snow accumulation.”
The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, urged the Spaniards to avoid all but the essentials. “We are facing the most intense storm in 50 years,” he said.
More than 650 roads were blocked by snow, Grande-Marlaska said, leaving some drivers stuck in their cars Friday night through Saturday.
Patricia Manzanares, caught in the car on the M-40 motorway in Madrid, at 7 pm on Friday, told RTVE television: “I was stuck here without water or any other help.”
Aena, which controls the country’s airports, said Madrid’s Barajas Airport, which was closed on Friday night, will remain closed for the rest of Saturday. It is said that at least 50 flights to Madrid, Malaga, Tenerife and Ceuta, a Spanish territory in North Africa, have been canceled.
The State Meteorological Agency said it was the heaviest snow in Madrid since 1971, while José Miguel Viñas, a meteorologist at Spanish National Radio, said that between 25 cm and 50 cm (10-20 inches) fell in the capital, which he said made it the heaviest snowfall since 1963.
Atletico Madrid’s game against Athletic Bilbao, scheduled to begin on Saturday at 1515 GMT, has been postponed, La Liga said in a statement.
Reporting by Graham Keeley; Edited by Frances Kerry and David Holmes