Tenerife mops up after fatal floods

Hundreds are still waiting to see the damage to their homes

By the BBC's Janet Barrie in Santa Cruz

Clean-up operations have resumed on the island of Tenerife following flash flooding that claimed the lives of six people at the weekend.

One person is still unaccounted for, and 30 were injured.

The island of Tenerife has rarely seen rain like this - some 15 centimetres fell in two hours on Sunday afternoon.

The water cascaded down from the mountains, turning the boulevards of the capital Santa Cruz into fast-flowing rivers.

Among the dead were two people who drowned when their car was caught in the torrent, and a two-year-old girl who died when a car was swept on to the roof of her house.

Rocky foundations

A congress centre in Santa Cruz has been turned into a temporary refuge for hundreds of people who cannot yet return to their homes.

Some pets were caught up in the flooding

The rain eased overnight, and the Red Cross will decide later on Tuesday whether the hundreds sheltered in a congress centre in the capital can return home.

There are still concerns that some houses perched on the steep hill around the city could collapse.

Many were built illegally.

Tenerife is a popular tourist destination, but the tourist areas are concentrated in the south of the island, away from the flooding.

The dead were all local people.

The Spanish authorities have not yet said whether any foreigners were among the injured.