Las Palmas, Spain, (AFP) - Two people have died and dozens more have suffered from respiratory problems after a dust-charged storm was coming out of the Sahara hit the Spanish Canary Islands, local authorities said on Tuesday.

Two bodies, that of a Colombian man and an unidentified woman, were found inside a car on Tuesday. According to police, the storm forced the car into the sea off the island of Lanzarote on Saturday.

Meanwhile, people all over the archipelago have been suffering from breathing problems caused by the seasonal calima , a violent hot and dusty easterly wind originating from the sahara desert, barely 500 km away.

The same wind which began to abate on Tuesday caused some considerable problems for road, sea and air traffic. Several flights were cancelled at the airports of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura .