Emergency crews in Spanish tourist hotspot rush to rescue people trapped in their cars as floods cause chaos with roads blocked and homes ruined

Emergency crews in a popular tourist region in Spain have been forced to launch an rescue operation to save several people trapped in their cars following heavy flooding. 

Heavy rain plagued the Murcia region and Costa Blanca area, popular with British holidaymakers, after a weekend of severe disruption to travellers and locals alike. 

Storm Tamara left panicked tourists stranded in Palma Airport last night, with over 100 planes being cancelled or delayed as the travel hub was lashed by severe weather.

The weather has forced emergency services to respond to hundreds of calls today alone. According to Spain's emergency services, 200 out of the 221 calls made in Costa Blanca were related to the storm, according to Spanish broadcaster Cadena SER. 

Murcia saw 113 calls to emergency services, including many that reported people being trapped in their cars during the floods. 

Of the 221 calls, 95 were related to water drainage, while 33 were about obstacles blocking the road. 

It comes after chaotic scenes at Palma Airport yesterday evening, when 100 of the 'more than 900 flights' scheduled to operate at Palma airport, including many from British travel hubs like Gatwick, Luton and Bristol, had been affected by the storm.

One video showed rainwater flooding one of the airport's runways, with a member of staff jokingly diving into the water to show how deep it was.

Another showed the ceiling above the duty free shops in the airport severely leaking water.

Similar images were seen across Costa Blanca over the last few days. Hail stones fell in some parts of Valencia, which includes the provinces of Alicante and Valencia, while Benidorm was on a yellow storm alert with the possibility of rain put at 100 per cent.

Further south in Murcia roads turned into raging torrents. In its capital city locals and tourists were pictured ankle-deep in water in its main street as they tried to negotiate their way past shops while others took refuge inside.

Elsewhere in the province cars were seen and wheelie bins were seen 'swimming' down streets which looked more like rivers. Firefighters were said to be 'working tirelessly' with roads closed in some places.

Much of the continent is facing similarly extreme weather, with a heatwave blanketing Turkey, Greece and Cyprus as Spain is hit by floods.

The heat is hitting countries around the eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean seas the hardest, with the mercury clocking 43C in Cyprus last week, prompting wildfires.

Turkey is seeing air temperatures soar eight to 12 degrees above seasonal norms, while Greece has today been forced to close the Athens Acropolis, its most visited tourist site, during the hottest hours of the day.

To the west, meanwhile, hundreds of firefighters in France are battling a powerful blaze to the north of Saint-Tropez which has caught crews off-guard.

The weather extremes come as many Brits are planning to jet off to Europe for sunnier climates, and to escape what has been a deeply disappointing spring.