Spain floods: New video shows the moment deadly Valencia floods struck out of nowhere
Terrifying footage shows floodwaters pummelling towards the Valencia region in Spain, as the nation grapples with the aftermath of a mob attack on the nation’s royals.
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Harrowing video has captured the moment deadly floods surged towards Spain’s Valencia region.
The surge of water can be seen speeding past apartment blocks and wiping out cars and people.
The storm caught many victims in their vehicles on roads and in underground spaces such as car parks, tunnels and garages.
The toll stands at 217 dead – almost all in the eastern Valencia region – and could spike in the coming days as an unknown number of people remain missing.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is assisting seven Australians. All are safe and well.
Around 17,000 soldiers, police officers, civil guards and firefighters spent a sixth day distributing aid, repairing infrastructure and searching for bodies using heavy machinery, drones and sniffer dogs.
Roads and railways were gradually being repaired, while 60 per cent of the telephone network had been restored, government minister Angel Victor Torres told reporters.
Almost all the power grid was back up and 93 per cent of the affected population has access to the gas network, said Rosa Touris, spokeswoman for the body co-ordinating rescue work in the Valencia region.
Divers on Monday concentrated their search for missing bodies in garages and a multi-storey car park in the town of Aldaia.
The structure is full of “millions of litres” of water and a morgue capable of holding 400 bodies is being prepared, said General Javier Marcos, head of the army’s emergencies unit.
Authorities in Valencia extended travel restrictions for another two days, cancelled classes and urged residents to work from home to facilitate the work of the emergency services.
National weather service AEMET announced the end of the emergency for Valencia but torrential rain sparked transport chaos in the northeastern Catalonia region.
Barcelona’s El Prat airport, Spain’s second busiest, cancelled 153 flights on Monday, Transport Minister Oscar Puente wrote on X.
The city closed some flooded metro stations and regional trains were suspended but no human casualties were recorded in Catalonia, regional leader Salvador Illa told a news conference.
MUD, ABUSE HURLED AT ROYALS
Spain is also grappling with the aftermath of an extraordinary outburst of popular anger in which crowds heckled and hurled mud at King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
A judge has opened an investigation into the chaos in the ground-zero town of Paiporta that cut short their visit on Sunday local time amid widespread discontent at the perceived mishandling of the crisis.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska blamed “marginal groups” for instigating the violence where mud spattered the monarchs’ faces and clothes, and a window of Mr Sanchez’s car was broken.
Furious locals pelted Spain’s king, queen and prime minister with mud and cries of “murderers!”, forcing them to cut short a visit to the town worst hit by floods.
As a new storm headed for the region, an angry crowd in the town of Paiporta turned viciously on Mr Sanchez and the head of the Valencia region, both of whom were whisked away by security.
Mud hit King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia in the face and clothes as they tried to calm the angry crowd five days after the floods hit.
Queen Letizia could be seen with mud spatters on her face, while one of the bodyguards escorting the royals appeared to have been hit in the head and was bleeding from his forehead.
The crowd shouted “murderers,” “assassins,” and other insults at the delegation, with police on horseback trying to control the crowd who waved shovels menacingly.
The crowd’s fury seemed mostly directed at PM Sanchez and the head of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazon.
“Mazon resign!” some shouted. “How many deaths?! Out!.”
The extraordinary scenes underscored the depth of anger over the response to Spain’s worst disaster in decades, with hopes fading for finding survivors.
The royals went to a crisis centre in Paiporta, ground zero for a disaster Mr Sanchez called the second deadliest flood in Europe this century.
But extra security guards were soon called to stand between the king and queen and the angry crowd, whose fury was directed at Mr Sanchez and Valencia regional government head Carlos Mazon.
“I understand the social anger and of course, I’m here to receive it. This is my political and moral obligation,” Mr Mazon said in a post on X, while calling the king’s conduct “exemplary”.
The monarchs spent an hour trying to calm tempers before leaving.
Mr Sanchez and the local politicians quickly left, but not before the rear window of the premier’s vehicle was smashed.
Mr Sanchez later said while he empathised with the “anguish and suffering” of the victims, he condemned “all forms of violence”.
GRIM SEARCH
Emergency services backed by drones and more than 1200 troops combed mud-caked towns and villages to find survivors and clear roads of debris.
Firefighters in the Valencia region released a video of rescue workers airlifting a one-year-old boy to safety from his flooded village.
Abandoned vehicles lay piled on top of each other like dominoes and some residents grabbed planks of wood to plough through layers of thick, sticky mud, AFP journalists saw in the Valencia region.
In Paiporta, 27-year-old musician David Romero lamented a “catastrophe”.
“Neighbourhood after neighbourhood, street after street, there is not a business standing,” he told AFP.
Hundreds of people are being sheltered in temporary accommodation while road and rail transport have been severely disrupted.
It could take up to three weeks to reopen the high-speed line between Madrid and Valencia, Transport Minister Oscar Puente wrote on X.
Half of the 150,000 homes left without power on Wednesday had been reconnected to the grid by Thursday evening, Torres added in his news conference.
CLIMATE CHANGE, LEADERS BLAMED
Scientists say human-driven climate change is increasing the length, frequency and intensity of extreme weather events that are increasingly unpredictable and difficult to control.
The rainfall that lashed Spain this week was 12 per cent heavier and twice as likely compared to the world before global warming, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said on Thursday.
The storm that sparked the floods formed as cold air moved over the warm waters of the Mediterranean and is common for this time of year.
But scientists warn climate change driven by human activity is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of such extreme weather events.
The political fallout of the disaster started to rumble on Thursday after doubts were raised about the adequacy of warning systems.
Romero said the alerts in Paiporta only arrived when the local river was already overflowing and catching people off guard in the streets.
The conservative head of the Valencia region had appeared to shift responsibility to the left-wing central government on Wednesday.
But the interior ministry criticised “erroneous information” on Thursday and said the regions, which have wide powers in Spain’s decentralised political system, are responsible for managing civil protection procedures in emergencies.
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Originally published as Spain floods: New video shows the moment deadly Valencia floods struck out of nowhere
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