While urgently required, this week's persistent heavy rains are causing a number of problems in Murcia and across Andalucía, where serious weather alerts remain in place.

In Algeciras (Cádiz), a total of 24 people had to be rescued from their flooded homes and rowed to safety after the Palomares river burst its banks during the early hours of yesterday morning.

In Marbella, dozens of homes, carparks, basements, residential estates and sporting installations were flooded, with similar scenes in the nearby towns of Mijas, Estepona, Coín, Alhaurín de la Torre and Campillos, while there was a power cut in the village of Zalea, near Pizarra.

Around ten cars parked in the Arroyo del Café river bed, which is normally dry, were swept away, requiring the intervention of a number of emergency fire service teams and a diver, who were faced with the perilous task of checking that nobody had been trapped inside any of the vehicles (photo).

Torrential rains have also been causing problems in the Murcia region; particularly in the town of Lorca, where a number of potholes have begun to open up in many town centre roads, a wall also collapsed and lumps of masonry have been falling from a number of buildings.

Further north, towns in the south of Tarragona province are also on alert with a flood warning in place for the Baix Ebre and Montsiá areas.