Key Points
- At least 95 people have been killed following catastrophic flash flooding across Spain.
- The death toll appeared to be the worst in Europe from flooding since 2021.
- The floods were caused by a weather system in which cold and warm air meet, creating powerful rain clouds.
Three days of official mourning have been declared in Spain after at least 95 people were killed following catastrophic flash flooding across the country.
Rescuers expected to find more bodies following the country's deadliest flood in more than fifty years, which launched muddy waters through towns in the eastern region of Valencia, tossed cars and wreaked transport havoc.
A resident inspects damaged vehicles piled up in Sedavi, in the province of Valencia. Source: AAP / Biel Alino/EPA
Residents in the worst-hit places described seeing people clambering onto the roofs of their cars as a churning tide of brown water gushed through the streets, uprooting trees and dragging away chunks of masonry from buildings.
Residents salvage furniture in the flood-hit municipality of Paiporta. Source: AAP / Manuel Bruque/EPA
A resident looks at a damaged bridge in the flood-hit municipality of Ribarroja del Turia, in the province of Valencia. Source: AAP / Kai Forsterling/EPA
It is possibly Spain's worst in its modern history as the number of victims surpassed 87 people killed in a 1996 flood near a town in the Pyrenees mountains.
Power services have also been affected, with reports from power company i-DE claiming around 150,000 of their customers across the region had been left with no electricity. Source: AAP / Manu Fernandez/AP
"This shows the tremendous magnitude of this tragedy," he said.
People stand in front of their houses affected by floods in Utiel, Spain. Source: AAP / Manu Fernandez/AP
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X that Europe was ready to help. "What we're seeing in Spain is devastating," she said.
Damaged cars and debris stacked in the middle of a train rail in the flood-hit city of Alfafar. Source: AAP / Raquel Segura/EPA
Residents walk past piled-up cars along a mud-covered street in the flood-hit municipality of Paiporta. The mayor of Paiporta, located about ten kilometres southwest of Valencia, confirmed that at least 34 people died in the municipality due to the flooding. Source: AAP / Manuel Bruque/EPA
A despondent Jose Manuel Rellan watched helplessly as relentless rains drenched his town in eastern Spain on Wednesday.
"It has been raining non-stop for 10 hours... And the result is what you see," the 49-year-old warehouser worker told Agence France-Presse in the Valencia municipality Ribarroja del Turia, pointing to flooded streets caked in mud.
"We are cut off, you can't reach parts of the town. The roads are all cut, bridges are cut."
A resident walks over debris in the flood-hit municipality of Paiporta, in the province of Valencia, Spain. The total death toll of the floods appeared to be the worst in Europe from flooding since 2021, when at least 185 people died in Germany. Source: EPA / Manuel Bruque
Power services have also been affected, with reports from power company i-DE claiming around 150,000 of their customers across the region had been left with no electricity.
Other regions of Spain also affected
There was also flooding in other parts of the country, including the southern region of Andalusia, and forecasters warned of more bad weather ahead as the storm moved in a north-east direction.
Defence minister Margarita Robles said more than 1,000 troops backed by helicopters were being deployed in the face of "an unprecedented phenomenon". Source: Getty / Jorge Guerrero/AFP
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez promised to rebuild the infrastructure that had been destroyed and said in a televised address on Wednesday: "For those who at this moment are still looking for their loved ones, the whole of Spain weeps with you."
The floods were caused by a destructive weather system in which cold and warm air meet and produce powerful rain clouds. Source: AAP / Manuel Bruque/EPA
What caused the floods?
The floods were caused by a destructive weather system in which cold and warm air meet and produce powerful rain clouds, a pattern believed to be growing more frequent due to climate change.
Source: Getty / EPA/Biel Alino
Eastern and southern Spain are particularly susceptible to the phenomenon due to its position between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
A man cleans his house affected by floods in Utiel, Spain. Source: AAP / Manu Fernandez/AP
"We're going to see more of these flash floods in the future. This has the fingerprints of climate change on it, these terribly heavy rainfalls, and these devastating floods," said Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.
With additional reporting by the Agence France-Presse.
