Heavy rains plunged the holiday island of Lanzarote into chaos over the weekend.

According to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the capital, Arrecife, and the popular tourist destination of Costa Teguise were particularly affected.

As reported by the German newspaper Welt, around 97.5 liters of rain per square meter fell in Costa Teguise within just two hours, and around 61 liters in Arrecife – an enormous amount of water that turned streets into torrents, flooded basements and largely paralyzed traffic.

According to Enrique Espinosa, head of the regional government’s civil protection agency, the emergency call centers received over 300 calls for help, mainly from the hard-hit areas of Arrecife and Teguise. Espinosa told EFE news agency, as reported by La Vanguardia,

According to current information, there were no injuries. However, the state of emergency was declared as a precaution on Saturday morning, as the regional government confirmed to Cadena SER. The state of emergency was lifted again on Sunday morning after the weather had calmed down.

Meteorologists attribute the storm to the Atlantic storm “Oliver” that passed over the Canary Islands. According to a report in the British Times, experts have been warning for some time that such extreme weather conditions could occur more frequently and more intensely as a result of climate change.