“Of the 160 incidents, 136 were recorded between 12:00 and 16:20, due to the heavy rain that occurred during lunch hour,” Nuno Marques, duty officer at the Sapadores Fire Brigade Regiment, told Lusa.

Of these 136 requests for help, “108 were related to flooding and seven to falling trees”, he stated, in an assessment carried out around 4:30 pm, when 85 incidents were still active in the city of Lisbon.

The floods occurred “mainly on roads and in homes, in this case, due to problems with the roofs and lack of cleaning of gutters”, explained the officer on duty.

The intense rain caused flooding on Estrada de Chelas and Rua das Pretas, in downtown Lisbon.

At 4:30 pm, traffic was congested in the Berlin Avenue tunnel, “due to the height of the water”, he said.

According to Nuno Marques, all operatives from the 11 firefighter fire stations (with the exception of the dangerous materials team) and more than 40 vehicles were involved in these incidents.

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