Deluge in Madrid: Hospitals flooded, 24 flights diverted and metro becomes a waterfall

THIS evening's freak storms have led to flights being diverted, the metro ground to a halt and even a hospital flooding in Madrid – and 35 other provinces in the country are expected to be hit with similar weather tomorrow, if they have not been already.

So far, 24 flights have been forced to land at other airports in the space of an hour and a half due to extreme weather conditions over Madrid's Adolfo Suárez-Barajas.

And the metropolitan transport company has released the above photo of the station of Valdezarza on Line 7, which has literally turned into a waterfall.

Some services on Line 6 and 7, the worst affected, have been restored since, but the outer suburban lines serving neighbouring provinces including Ávila and Salamanca has been closed since mid-afternoon.

Traffic chaos has resulted from the downpours, with the entrances to the A-2 motorway from the M-50 ringroad flooded and blocked, as well as the Barcelona road near the airport.

The A-4 motorway heading south into the province of Toledo was shut at the border town of Seseña – made famous last year because of its huge tyre plant fire – and tailbacks have been reported all over the Greater Madrid region because of patches of flooding on the roads.

Several shops and cafés in an undercover mall on the Avenida de Pío XII, including a hypermarket, flooded and customers had to be evacuated and kept out for more than an hour.

The deluge has caused roof leaks in two of Madrid's airport terminals and at the metro stations serving them, and cars are said to be under water in the Fuenlabrada district.

Furious medical workers have slammed authorities' 'poor planning' for bad weather after they and patients got soaked in several of the region's hospitals, most of which are in the city.

Leaky roofs and 'serious flooding' have been reported at the Clínico, Ramón y Cajal, and 12 de Octubre hospitals, and the one in the outer Madrid town of Getafe.

The worst-hit hospital is La Paz, where several centimetres of water filled up the floors of wards and consultation rooms.

A staff member tweeted: “Not gone away on holiday yet? Our swimming pool season has just kicked off! Come and take a dip, but hurry – space is limited! (A&E, La Paz Hospital).”

'Orange' and 'yellow' weather warnings for storms, heavy rain and thunder and lightning have been issued for all east-coast provinces from the French border to Alicante inclusive, as well as parts of Galicia and Extremadura, the whole of the regions of Asturias, Cantabria, La Rioja and the Basque Country, and all of Aragón except the Pyrénéen province of Huesca.

Temperatures remain high, however, and the humidity is palpable with the mercury soaring to 39ºC even as the heavens open.

Tomorrow (Saturday) is likely to see more of the same.