Eyewitness footage captured cars stranded on flooded streets and a vehicle being swept into the sea by rising floodwaters in Spain’s Gran Canaria on Monday (March 3). Residents in the Telde region later joined forces with emergency services to clean streets blanketed in mud. This video contains language some people may consider offensive.

Tourists on Gran Canaria have been warned to stay indoors following flooding, which has seen piles of mud and dirt cover streets and drag cars under bridges and into the sea

The flooding has affected Gran Canaria’s 850,000 residents leaving streets buried under mud and debris, and vehicles submerged beneath bridges.

Published images show cars washed away by the floods in Gran Canaria, with its streets become raging rivers as water levels rise. Piles of mud and dirt have covered the streets as torrential rain battered the popular holiday island. The entire island of Lanzarote - the easternmost island of the archipelago - is also under a weather warning.

On 2 March, the Canaries’ government issued a severe weather alert, warning of heavy rains as well as hail and snow, while AEMET suggests the storms could last until at least 5 March. The Spanish Tourist Office UK said: “We have spoken to our partners in Gran Canaria with regards to recent localised flooding in the area of Telde.

The Spanish islands have been hit with a spell of flash flooding as Spanish authorities issue a red alert in Gran Canaria