Tenerife’s calm broken by towering waves.

A tragedy has unfolded in Tenerife after towering waves battered the Canary Islands, leaving three people dead and fifteen others injured during a weekend of red-alert warnings.

The powerful Atlantic swells struck several coastal areas on Saturday, including Puerto de la Cruz, where a giant wave swept ten people from a wooden platform into the sea. Rescuers fought to save those pulled under, but a 59-year-old Dutch woman was later confirmed dead after suffering cardiac arrest.

Further south, a man was airlifted from the waters off La Guancha but died en route to hospital, while a third victim was found unresponsive on the beach at El Cabezo.

“It was the most tragic day in a decade,” said Sebastián Quintana, president of Canarias, 1,500 km of coastline, who described the scale of the sea surge as “unprecedented in recent years”.

Local officials confirmed that many of those injured were tourists visiting from cruise ships, caught unaware by sudden waves crashing over walkways and sea walls. The Canary Islands government said emergency services responded to multiple incidents across the archipelago, with 15 ft waves recorded along the north coast.

A coastal alert remains active across Tenerife, Gran Canaria and La Palma, with authorities urging caution near harbours, promenades and cliff paths. Warnings extend to El Hierro, La Gomera and Lanzarote, where conditions are expected to remain dangerous through the week.

Experts from the Spanish Meteorological Agency said the violent surf was caused by a combination of strong winds and high tides driven by a deep Atlantic depression moving toward the Iberian Peninsula.

In another incident at Roque de las Bodegas in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, six French visitors ignored red flags and warning beacons before being dragged into the sea. Local police said that all were rescued, but three remain in hospital.

The tragedy has prompted renewed discussion about coastal safety across the islands, where unpredictable tides and rogue waves have led to multiple deaths in recent years.

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