Huge waves have destroyed seafront balconies and reached as high as the third floor of holiday apartments on the island of Tenerife, prompting evacuations.
Footage showed waves lashing an apartment block in the tourist town of Mesa del Mar in the north-west of the Spanish island.
Some 65 apartments in two blocks facing the ocean had been evacuated, according to Alvaro Davila, mayor of the municipality of Tacoronte which Mesa del Mar is part of.
It came after regional government officials decreed a state of alert as a fierce storm battered the north of Tenerife and other parts of the Canary Islands.
The mayor said no-one had been injured in the scare, which followed the evacuation of 39 people from two buildings in Garichico on the island’s north east coast.
Garichico was one of the worst-affected areas, with waves crashing over the sea wall and flooding streets to the astonishments of locals who filmed the water racing towards them as they ran for safety.
Further south, in the holiday hotspot of Adeje there were also reports of waves breaking the windows of a hotel restaurant, although again there were no injuries.
The first evacuations were carried out around 10pm last night, with more following around 2am today.
Many of the homes evacuated in Mesa del Mar are holiday homes.