MADRID, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- The body of a man who was swept away as he tried to wheel his motorbike across a river swollen by floodwaters in the northeastern Spanish province of Gerona was recovered by the Catalan fire brigade on Friday, rescue services confirmed.
The 62-year-old victim was part of a group of motorcyclists who were staying in a rural hotel close to the town of Mieres.
Eyewitnesses said the man was swept away by the current while attempting to cross the Torrent de Collet de Guixers in Mieres on Thursday night.
The search for the many involved six fire engines. And the body of the victim was discovered in the nearby River Ser in the early hours of Friday morning.
Amid the torrential rains in the Catalan Region, the Fire Brigade was called into action over 700 times during a 24-hour period, while emergency services received over 1,500 calls.
Further south the region of Valencia, eastern Spain, was also badly hit by flooding with rainfall of over 100 liters per square meter measures in some areas, causing several rivers to overflow and leading to road closures.
Schools in 15 localities were forced to be suspended due to the bad weather, affecting around 34,000 schoolchildren.
Flooding caused by torrential rains in Spain claimed 15 lives in October.
Recent floods in the south and east of Spain are caused by a phenomenon known as "Gota Fria", or "cold drop". This usually happens in autumn when air from cold weather fronts meets warmer air rising from the Mediterranean Sea causing intense storms and heavy localized rainfall.
