British pensioners, Christopher and Christine Martin, met a tragic end when the living room ceiling fell on them as they sat on a sofa at their friends’ cortijo in the Alpujarra village of Rubite.
The couple, who resided on the coast at La Mamola, had been invited by Caroline and Stewart to spend the day with them, but the months of almost constant rain, interspersed with violent downpours, caused an earth bank behind the cortijo to give way.
Caroline had been in the kitchen making coffee when she heard the roof give way and crash down on top of the couple, aged 63 and 64. Although she was just over a metre away from them, she escaped with minor injuries.