Laurence Dollimore
THE president of the region of Valencia has confirmed there have been at least 51 deaths following extreme rainfall and flooding on Tuesday.
Carlos Mazon said various emergency services have recovered corpses from different affected areas.
He said he could not put an ‘exact number’ as people remain missing and rescue operations are continuing.
It has now become one of the worst natural disasters in recent Spanish history.
Speaking during a live broadcast last night, he said: “There are lifeless bodies in some of the areas that have begun to be accessed and bodies that continue to appear.”
Mazon called for calm for those who remain trapped or blocked by the floods.
He added: “We will get there, and if we haven’t already, it’s not because of a lack of capacity, but because of a problem of access.”
He advised people to seek ‘high places’ in case there are more floods in the coming hours.
It comes as footage from Valencia airport overnight showed the tarmac and runways completely covered with water.
Pictures from inside the travel hub showed hundreds of passengers waiting for updates, with many seen sleeping on the floor.
One X user wrote: “I’ve been at Valencia airport for almost 6 hours. I’m bored, my back hurts because there aren’t enough seats and I’m hungry because I’m not going to spend that much money. Help.”
Another said: “We are trapped at Valencia airport due to the DANA, no planes are departing or arriving, this is chaos, people are on the floor, on the stairs and the updates are minimal.”
It comes as yet more heavy rainfall began hurtling down across Valencia in the early hours of Wednesday.
The rainy conditions are expected to last across eastern and southern Spain until Thursday, sparking fears of further disaster.
Last night, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he was following updates ‘closely’ and ‘with concern’, particularly in regard to those missing in Valencia and Albacete (Castilla La-Mancha).
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The PSOE leader wrote on X: “I am closely following, with concern, the reports on missing persons and the damage caused by the DANA in recent hours.
“All emergency services, @proteccioncivil, @UMEgob and personnel from @policia
and @guardiacivil are being deployed in response to the storm. Let’s follow their instructions.
“Be very careful and avoid unnecessary trips.”
There was at least one person missing in Valencia and four missing from Albacete, but these numbers are now confirmed to have increased, although exact figures have yet to be released.
The worst hit regions are Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha and parts of Andalucia.
People across all three have been asked to remain indoors and avoid travel unless absolutely necessary.
The dramatic conditions are being caused by a so-called DANA, a high area of isolated depression that typically brings heavy rainfall and a drop in temperatures.
It discharged more than 300 litres per square metre in the Valencian region of Utiel-Requena, an amount described as ‘historic’ and which has caused the Magro River to overflow.
Meanwhile, a tornado left residents in Benifaio stunned, as did a flood which has devastated Chiva.
The army has been roped in to rescue residents trapped in their homes in Valencia, which continued overnight.
Many of them have been pulled from their roofs by helicopter, a task made extremely difficult in the current conditions.
In L’Alcudia (Valencia), a truck driver who vanished during the worst of the storm remains among the missing.
In one clip shared on X, debris can be seen swirling into the sky as a tornado blew over a Repsol petrol station in Benifaio.
People can be seen running inside the garage as the weather phenomenon begins to pass over them.
Another video shows chairs, tables and other objects swirling around an apartment terrace as the tornado passes by.
The items are sent smashing into the terrace doors, almost forcing them open.
Elsewhere in Valencia, a bridge was filmed being completely destroyed by a river surge.
