Devastating floods have killed at least 155 people in eastern and southern Spain, local officials announced Thursday, after torrential rain fueled the worst natural disaster in the country’s modern history.
Stunning images emerged from Valencia, Spain’s third most populous city, showing dozens of cars wedged atop one another after having been carried by a wave of mud and debris into the walls of the narrow city streets.
“Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,” Transport Minister Óscar Puente said.
Emergency services in the region of Valencia announced on X that the “provisional” death toll was 155 and that the “process of collecting and identifying victims continues.”
A year’s worth of rain fell in just eight hours in areas around the city, meteorologists said.
In many parts of Spain, emergency workers raced against time Thursday to find survivors stranded in small towns and villages, many of which are hard to reach by roads now covered in muddy water and debris.
The Spanish government has deployed more than 1,000 soldiers to assist with the operation, and it is still unclear just how many people are missing. In Sedaví, near Valencia, railway signals and debris were strewn across the tracks as residents navigated their way through the destruction.
Images emerging from Valencia and the surrounding area showed cars stacked on top of one another as local residents looked on in disbelief from windows and balconies.
The storm caused widespread disruption to public services and left roads unusable.
It was the worst natural disaster to hit Europe in years, rivaling deadly floods that killed 185 people in Germany in 2021.
Police in Valencia mourned the loss of a colleague Thursday after they received the news that the colleague was killed by the devastating floods.
The effects of the storm were felt beyond Valencia, which suffered the greatest damage.
Knee-deep floodwaters hit the city of Cádiz, which lies close to Gibraltar in southwestern Spain. And a torrent of water could be seen gushing beneath the streets in Letur in the southeast.
Videos shared on social media showed dramatic rescues by emergency services using helicopters.
People were housed in emergency shelters after many were forced to evacuate their homes.
While autumn storms are not uncommon in Spain, the intensity of the flooding has stunned the country.
Extreme weather events like this one are becoming more common around the world, with the scientific community saying the increased episodes are most likely linked to the climate crisis.
Spain has begun three days of mourning.
