A mountaineer has been found dead after disappearing in severe weather conditions in northern Spain.
The 53-year-old is believed to have fallen down a slope while ascending up the Spanish Pyrenees near the village of Villanua on Saturday.
His family raised the alarm at 5.50pm, calling the 112 SOS Aragón emergency centre after he failed to return and could no longer be reached by phone.
The warning triggered an immediate deployment of the GREIM rescue unit from Jaca, which dispatched four agents and a specialist search dog to the area.
Teams searched through the night in treacherous conditions, battling strong winds, freezing temperatures and heavy snow. He was found shortly after midnight.
Elsewhere on Saturday, the Benasque GREIM unit evacuated a 54-year-old man from Vilanova del Vallés (Barcelona) after he briefly lost consciousness on a trail near the Llanos del Hospital car park.
He was airlifted to medical care by the 112 Aragón helicopter with a suspected heart issue.
Later the same day, a 71-year-old French hiker was taken to Huesca’s San Jorge Hospital with an ankle sprain after tripping on the Camino del Cielo circular route in Riglos.
It comes as temperatures are set to drop again this week as an Arctic blast spreads across the entire country.
Weather service Meteored España said: ‘Don’t put away scarves and gloves just yet!
‘Another pulse of Arctic air will bring back the wintry weather to Spain starting Tuesday.’
In eastern Andalucia, several weather alerts have been issued by state weather agency Aemet on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Forecasters have placed areas of Granada (Costa Tropical, Nevada, the Alpujarras, Guadix, Baza), Almeria (Almeria capital, western coast) and Jaen (Cazorla, Villacarrillo) on yellow warnings for strong winds of up to 80km/hr.
Temperatures in Andalucia are not expected to surpass 16C this week, in what meteorologists have deemed a ‘colder week than normal’ for this time of year.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
