Death toll rises to nine in storm-hit Spain, Portugal

The death toll in storms which hit Spain and Portugal has risen to nine causing large scale damage to public property.

Two people died in Portugal and seven were killed in Spain.

In Spain, a woman was killed after debris fell on a building in Madrid. A man drowned while windsurfing off the Andalusian coast.

Last week storms hit the Iberian Peninsula and increased in intensity with high winds and heavy rains. The storm later hit central and southern Spain with winds of up to 140 km/hour and waves as high as nine metres.

Storms Elsa and Fabien have caused flooding and communication disruption hitting rail and air travel in Spain, Portugal and France.

As a weakened Storm Elsa moved to the UK over the weekend, Storm Fabien moved in, bringing winds of 170 kilometres to northwestern Spain.

France on Saturday placed fifteen regions in the southwest on orange alert due to the storm even as winds left several hundred houses without electricity.