Cars immobilised in the water, with residents and businesses trying bail out the water.

Rua de Angola, in the extreme north of the city, Avenida dos Bombeiros, next to the municipal market, and a good part of the historic centre had water above the level of the pavements.

Some of the main arteries in the urban perimeter had to be cut off to traffic to avoid circulation in the flooded areas, due to the heavy rain registered between 06:00 and 08:30, which left a large part of the city impassable.

Speaking to Lusa, a source from the District Command for Relief Operations (CDOS) in Faro said that at 07:00 the meteorological station of the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere (IPMA) recorded, in one hour, 42.1 millimetres of precipitation in the City.

According to the same source, the urban area of ​​Vila Real de Santo António was the most affected area – together with the localities of Altura and Monte Gordo -, with 41 occurrences having been recorded due to the episode of “intense and localised rainfall”.

“When there is surface flooding, which only happened on municipal roads, with no national roads affected, water ends up entering some buildings. But, in general, they are small floods”, he explained.

"It rained a lot, there was a lot of thunder, but this is also the case because of the rubbish on the ground that clogged the gutters," said Lusa Luís Castro, a resident of one of the affected areas.