Catalonia floods kill two as search continues for missing person

Two people were killed and another remained missing after torrential rain and flooding struck Catalonia by Oct. 4, 2026, inundating communities around Barcelona and disrupting flights and local rail services across the Spanish region.¹²³⁷

Deaths and search operation

A man died when a wall collapsed in Tordera, north of Barcelona, while a second person died in Montornès del Vallès. Emergency crews searched in Pineda de Mar, about 52 kilometres north of Barcelona, for a person reported missing during the flooding.¹²⁷

RTVE reported that two witnesses saw the missing person fall into the Pineda de Mar stream and that searches on Sunday ended without finding him. ARA separately reported that the missing person may have slipped near the stream and been carried away, but that account has not been independently confirmed in the dossier.⁴⁶

RTVE said firefighters conducted 2,440 operations, including 226 rescue missions, while the emergency number 112 received 8,151 calls from Saturday afternoon. The calls mainly concerned flooding, unsafe structures, rescues and traffic incidents. ARA reported more than 200 rescues across Catalonia.⁴⁶

Flooding and disrupted services

Floodwater covered streets, roads and fields in parts of Catalonia, leaving muddy water and debris. According to Euronews, waterways near Pineda de Mar had risen, and housing districts in Vilanova del Vallès were inundated. Other reports described flooded homes and submerged vehicles near Barcelona.¹²³⁷

Flights at Barcelona airport were cancelled or delayed, and local train operations were disrupted across Catalonia. By Oct. 5, EL PAÍS reported major problems on Rodalies lines R1, R2 Nord, R3, R4, R7, R8, R11, R13 and R14. It said R2 Sud and regional services south of Tarragona were operating normally, while eight schools could not open on Monday.¹²⁵⁷

Authorities restricted travel and activities during the storm before lifting some mobility controls in the Empordà. RTVE reported that Meteocat later considered the main weather episode finished, although the Inuncat emergency plan remained active and river warnings continued in Girona.⁴⁶⁸

Rainfall and river levels

More than 100 millimetres of rain fell overnight in numerous places. EL PAÍS reported totals of 288 litres per square metre in Vilassar de Mar and 213 in Barcelona. RTVE said the Can Bruixa station registered Barcelona’s highest rainfall reading since records began there in 1883, and also reported new rainfall records in Granollers, Mataró and Cabrils.¹⁴⁵

RTVE reported that the Ridaura and Daró rivers overflowed. It said the Besos River reached a flow of 936 cubic metres per second at 07:00 on Sunday before falling to 42.8, approaching the limit of its channel without overflowing.⁴

Weather context

Deutsche Welle linked the storms to a weather pattern known in Spain as a DANA, in which cold air higher in the atmosphere encounters warm, moisture-bearing air rising from the Mediterranean. It said a previous DANA-linked flood disaster in eastern Spain caused 238 deaths, with most of the victims in Valencia.¹

Deutsche Welle also cited a 2026 study that found human-caused climate change intensified rainfall during the 2024 Valencia disaster. That finding does not establish what influence, if any, climate change had on the latest flooding in Catalonia.¹