MADRID, Spain -- Torrential downpours in southern Spain have caused flash floods that killed five people, including two children, swamped homes and swept cars down roads that were transformed into raging rivers.

Spanish National radio said the bodies of a young boy and a girl were found drowned in a car in the southeastern town of Puerto Lumbreras. An elderly man also was found dead near the town's cemetery, the radio station said.

Earlier, an official in the southern town of Alora said homes were destroyed and a woman killed in the rains. Rescue workers are searching to determine if there are more victims. She did not have more details and spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with town policy.

The private news agency Europa Press said a man also was found dead in the southeastern town of Vera Playa, which had been cut off by the floods.

Images in Spanish media showed wrecked cars carried away by flash floods, rivers overflowing their banks and people sweeping muddy water out of their homes. The heavy rains started early Friday morning throughout Spain. The hardest hit areas were the Mediterranean provinces of Malaga in the south and Murcia and Almeria in the southeast.

The floods came after months of virtual drought and soaring summer temperatures all over Spain that helped trigger tens of thousands of wildfires.