MADRID - A flood and a landslide triggered by torrential rain killed two elderly women and injured two babies in rural northwestern Spain on Aug 15, authorities said.

“The deaths of two women, approximately 60 and 80 years old respectively, have been confirmed,” said the emergency services of the Castile and Leon region after the disaster in the small village of Manzanedo de Valdueza.

They added that two babies had been treated for bruises, while a third person reported missing - a man in his 80s - “has been found unharmed”.

Firefighters, police, ambulances and the Civil Guard were rushed to the scene, which footage from a rescue helicopter showed surrounded by hilly, forested terrain.

Local media published images showing a grey mass of stones and mud that had washed through the village and flattened a car.

The mayor of the nearby town of Ponferrada, Marco Morala, told reporters that “fierce storms in the hills triggered a large flow of stones, mud and sludge”, leading to the deaths.

The disaster had also caused material damage in the neighbouring village of Bouzas, Morala added.

The flood, which struck during a public holiday, comes as Spain has grappled for weeks with extreme weather of the opposite kind: heatwaves and wildfires.

The Leon province that includes Manzanedo de Valdueza suffered some of Spain’s worst wildfires in 2025, a record year of hectares burned in the country, as recorded by the European Forest Fire Information System. AFP