An army helicopter airlifted an elderly man and two rescuers to safety amid floodwaters in Burmarrad on Thursday.

The Civil Protection Department shared footage of the operation by the armed forces as Malta and Gozo were hit by a storm.

Rising waters had trapped an elderly motorist in his van in the Burmarrad Valley, near Piscopo.

When two CPD rescuers went to his aid, they, too found themselves in difficult and called in the AFM for assistance.  

Cars were dragged away in several localities as roads were flooded, but no one has been reported to be seriously injured. 

"Currents were very high and the responding officers could not see the van so they decided to drive the fire engine as far as they could, tie a guiding rope to the man's van and try to reach him," Station Officer Kevin Pace said.

"In the meanwhile water levels rose by about two metres, which caused the man's van to start to move. 

"As a result the rescuer couldn't move forward or get back to the fire engine."

They realised that at the end of the valley there is a drop of three to four storeys so they called in the army helicopter, who rescued all three. 

Cars were dragged away in several localities as roads were flooded, but no one has been reported to be seriously injured. 

Later on Thursday, a family-of-four and a taxi driver were helped to wade to safety when they ended up in a flooded road in Salina. 

The police said several rescue operations were carried out across Malta as the Meteorological Office issued an orange warning.