Five people were killed in two days in the floods in southeastern Spain, officials said Friday. At least 3,500 people have been evacuated after very heavy rainfall, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

The last dead body to be found is a man in the Redovan area, about 50 kilometers southwest of the city of Alicante, said without providing further details a spokesman for Rescuers.

Earlier in the day, a 36-year-old man was discovered between the localities of La Jamula and Salazar in Andalusia, the emergency services of this region were told on Twitter. A spokesman told AFP that an empty car was first found and that the driver's body was located by firefighters in a helicopter.

Another man - "middle aged" according to the emergency services - died drowned early Friday morning in Almeria in the same region. He could not get out of a car trapped in a tunnel "flooded in minutes because of the large amount of water fell," according to the town hall of the city.

One policeman was able to save two more people in the vehicle but this "occupant remained" stuck, said the mayor, Ramon Fernandez-Pacheco, on Cadena Ser radio. On Thursday, the authorities had already announced that a 61-year-old man and his 51-year-old sister had succumbed in their water-washed car in Caudete, Castilla-La Mancha.

Rescuers on a jet ski

Some areas of southeastern Spain have broken records in the last few days in terms of rainfall, which has overflowed rivers. Some of the 8,000 residents of the small town of Redovan had knee-high water on Friday and others were busy emptying their flooded homes, an AFP photographer said.

Video footage broadcast by the emergency services showed rescuers traveling on jet-ski on a flooded highway, brown water flowing through streets or submerged cars.

At least 74 roads were closed due to floods, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska also said, citing "a dramatic situation" in front of the press. About 3,000 members of law enforcement or military are mobilized for relief operations, he said.

Last year in October, floods had killed 13 people in Majorca whose inhabitants had been taken aback by the rising water of a torrent following torrential rains.

With AFP