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At least 62 people have been killed in the deadliest flooding to hit Spain for three decades after torrential rain battered the eastern region of Valencia on Tuesday, leaving roads and towns under water, local authorities said on Wednesday.
Rescuers using dinghies worked in the dark to scour the floodwaters, rescuing several people, television pictures from the town of Utiel showed and emergency services were still working to reach the worst-hit areas.
“For those who at this moment are still looking for their loved ones, the whole of Spain weeps with you,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a televised address. “To the villages and cities destroyed by this tragedy, I say the same: Together, we will rebuild your streets, your squares, your bridges,” he said.
Carlos Mazon, the regional leader of Valencia, one of Spain’s most important agricultural regions, said some people remained isolated in inaccessible locations.
“If [emergency services] have not arrived, it’s not due to a lack of means or predisposition, but a problem of access,” Mazon told a press conference, adding that reaching certain areas was “absolutely impossible”.
Dozens of videos shared on social media overnight appeared to show people trapped by the floodwaters, with some climbing into trees to avoid being swept away. Footage showed rescue workers transporting several women in a bulldozer’s bucket.
Firefighters could be seen freeing drivers whose cars were stranded in flooded streets in the town of Alzira.
Trains to the cities of Madrid and Barcelona were cancelled due to the flooding, and schools and other essential services were suspended in the worst-hit areas, officials said.
Deadliest Spanish floods since 1996
The death toll appeared to be the worst in Europe from flooding since 2021 when at least 185 people died in Germany. It is the worst flood-related disaster in Spain since 1996 when 87 people died near a town in the Pyrenees mountains.
Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in Europe due to climate change. Meteorologists think the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe.
“Events of this type, which used to occur many decades apart, are now becoming more frequent and their destructive capacity is greater,” said Ernesto Rodriguez Camino, senior state meteorologist and a member of the Spanish Meteorological Association.
Emergency services in the region urged citizens to avoid all road travel and to follow further official advice, and a military unit specialised in rescue operations was deployed in some places to help local emergency workers.
Spain’s state weather agency AEMET declared a red alert on Tuesday in Valencia, a leading citrus-growing region, with some areas such as Turis and Utiel recording 200 millimetres of rainfall.
It said the rain had since stopped but said that Castellon in the north of the region would remain on orange alert until 2pm. ASAJA, one of Spain’s largest farmer groups, said on Tuesday it expected significant damage to crops.
Spain is the world’s largest exporter of fresh and dried oranges, according to trade data provider the Observatory of Economic Complexity, and Valencia accounts for about 60 per cent of the country’s citrus production, according to Valencian Institute of Agriculture Investigations.
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