Torrential rains and strong winds have continued to batter parts of Spain and Portugal, causing at least two deaths, forcing the evacuation of more than 7000 people and prompting calls for the second round of Portugal's presidential election to be postponed.
Storm Leonardo, which hit the Iberian Peninsula this week, has led the Portuguese government to extend the current state of disaster in 69 municipalities until mid-February, The Guardian writes, reports Gazeta Express.
A man has died in Portugal, while the body of a woman who was swept away by a river in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia was found on Friday. It is the latest in a series of deadly storms that have hit Portugal and Spain in recent weeks, leaving several people dead.
Authorities in Andalusia, where more than 7000 people have been forced to flee their homes, evacuated residential areas near the Guadalquivir river in Cordoba overnight and banned pedestrian traffic on a bridge.
"We expect 30 mm [of rain]," Andalusia's regional president, Juan Manuel Moreno, said on Friday.
"Under other circumstances it would be a little water, but now it's a lot as the land can't drain and the rivers and reservoirs are full."
About 1500 residents were ordered to evacuate their homes in Grazalema, a mountain village popular with climbers, as water burst through the walls of houses and poured down steep cobblestone streets.
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