Giant tuna worth a fortune wash up on beach during Storm Gloria
These incredible scenes show locals picking up a free supper after giant tuna fish were swept ashore by Storm Gloria.
Several people, including one British ex-pat, took advantage of the unexpected freebie and headed to the seafront with large knives to cut off the best steaks.
The extraordinary scenes happened in L’Ampolla south of L’Ametlla de Mar, an important tourist centre in the province of Tarragona on Spain’s east coast.
The tuna are believed to have come from a nearby fish farm badly damaged by the storm, which has battered many parts of Spain since Sunday.
The death toll has now risen to at least nine with another four people missing.
Spanish daily El Pais identified one of the people who took away the washed-up tuna as an expat gardener from Sheffield it named only as Ryan.
The Brit told the paper: ‘This is the best fish there is. I don’t really care where it comes from.’
Gale-force winds and huge waves have smashed into Spanish seafront towns, damaging many shops and restaurants, wrecking beach facilities and flooding streets.
National weather agency Aemet said the storm was starting to abate on Wednesday although it kept the northeastern region of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands on alert.
In the south of France, 1,500 people were evacuated as two rivers quickly overflowed overnight on Wednesday.
Meteorologists said the rains would continue throughout Thursday, varying in intensity, in France’s southernmost Mediterranean departments of the Pyrenees-Orientales and Aude.
While winter storms are not rare on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, Spain has suffered several episodes of unusually intense rainfall in recent years.
Ibiza was hit by waves on Tuesday that reached a record high of 14.77 metres, according to the port authority.
The missing four include a 25-year-old Brit who vanished in Ibiza after stopping in the north of the island during a motorbike tour to take pictures near the sea.
He has been named as Ben Garland, from Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire.
Some of his friends and relatives have flown to Ibiza to help with the ongoing search for him.
Additional reporting by Gerard Couzens.