A tornado has swept through a fair ground in a Spanish town, knocking down a ferris wheel and injuring 35 people, while the death toll from flooding in the southern part of the country rose to eight.

Friday night's tornado damaged several rides and cut electricity in the temporary fair set up in the main square of Gandia, according to its town hall website. It says 15 of the injured were seriously hurt.

Local media reported the fair was closed to the public at the time of a thunderstorm and that all the injured were fair workers.

Just inland from the coastal town, three more victims of Friday's flash floods were found overnight. They included a woman in the town of Lorca, which was badly damaged by an earthquake last year.

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