Storm Gloria: Spanish town submerged in sea foam as tidal surge sweeps two miles inland

Known death toll rises to eight, as 40-foot waves batter Mediterranean coast

A Spanish town has been engulfed in thick marine foam as a tidal surge along the Catalan coast swept at least two miles inland.

Storm Gloria has claimed at least eight lives since it began pummelling the region with rain, snow and hail on Monday, leaving more than 200,000 people without power, levelling buildings, destroying rice paddies and triggering weather alerts in more than 30 provinces.

Three people are still reported missing, including a 25-year-old British man in Ibiza and another who fell into the sea while trying to moor his boat at a Costa Brava port. Waves reached a record 13.5m, port authorities said.

It was described as the worst storm since 2003 “and likely of this century”, said the head of Barcelona’s beach services, Dani Palacios.

In Tossa del Mar, residents toiled to sweep thick carpets of sea foam from the streets, as footage showed angry flurries blowing through the air and coating the walls of buildings to a height of several metres.

Created as rough seas churn disintegrating organic matter such as algae, sea foam is usually harmless to humans and typically indicates a productive offshore ecosystem. But depending on the algae present, as bubbles within the foam pop they can release certain airborne toxins which can irritate eyes and lungs, according to the US National Ocean Service.

Coming just months after Spain experienced deadly flooding in September, the storm wrought devastating consequences as it moved inland.

A body was found in an Alicante river, Spanish police said, while another person died after a building collapsed in nearby Alcoy, according to a rescue services official.

A man working in a greenhouse was killed as the glass structure was pounded by hail, an Almeria mayor told Efe news agency. Valencian authorities blamed the death of a homeless man on the storm causing temperatures to plummet.

As the flooding surged inland, seawater engulfed one of the country’s most important wetlands – the Ebro delta – inundating thousands of hectares of rice plants.

“We can't remember anything similar ever happening,” local mayor Lluis Soler told Cadena Ser radio. “It's dramatic to see how the river has overflowed and the sea has travelled kilometres inland.”

Meanwhile, Alicante airport was forced to close due to snow, which fell even further north than Madrid.

Forecasters had predicted the storm would ease by Wednesday, but the tempest has now arrived on the French coast, which has been placed on high alert.

It is the worst storm to afflict the region since 1982, the BBC reported Meteo France forecaster Oliver Proust as saying.

Additional reporting by Reuters