Storm claims at least 32 on Portugal’s Madeira isle

MADRID, Spain – Flooding and landslides swept away cars and knocked down houses as a violent storm killed at least 32 people Saturday on the Portuguese island of Madeira, a news agency reported.

The Lusa agency quoted the vice president of the Madeira regional government, Joao Cunha e Silva, as saying another 68 people have been hospitalized in the island’s main city, Funchal.

Madeira is the main island of a Portuguese archipelago of the same name, in the Atlantic off the northwest coast of Africa.

Floods tore down houses as the storm hit early Saturday. Roads were blocked by fallen trees and rocks carried by floodwaters, and some bridges were also downed, Lusa said.