Woman seen being dragged away by Valencia floods reveals how she survived

Questions have been raised about the alleged slow reaction of Valencia’s government before the floods on Tuesday.

A Spanish government official told POLITICO many were wondering why Valencian leader Carlos Mazón waited until 8pm to issue emergency text alerts to people.

Heavy rains had begun hours earlier.

The initial shock is now giving way to anger, frustration and a wave of solidarity.

Three days after flash floods swept through several towns in Spain and killed at least 205 people, the initial shock was giving way to anger, frustration and a wave of solidarity on Friday.

Spanish emergency authorities raised the death toll to at least 205 victims, 202 of them in Valencia alone.

It’s the highest death toll from flooding in Europe since 1970, when 209 people died in Romania.

Sir Keir Starmer has said that the UK ‘stands with Spain during this difficult time’ after flash floods killed more than 200 people.

The Prime Minister has also been in touch with the prime minister of Spain to convey a message of condolence following this week’s flooding, it is understood.

In a post on X on Friday afternoon, Sir Keir said: ‘My thoughts are with those who have lost their lives, their families and all those affected by the devastation caused by the extreme flooding in Spain.’

It is thought that the Prime Minister has also written to Pedro Sanchez to relay his personal condolences after the flooding, for which the death toll rose.

The UK is also thought to be on standby to offer any support, but at this point it is not thought that any assistance has been requested.

‘The Spanish people remain in the Prime Minister’s thoughts,’ a Number 10 spokeswoman said on Friday.

On Thursday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: ‘Our thoughts are with those that have lost their lives, their families and all those affected.’

More rain is expected to batter parts of Spain today.

The Balearics are under a rain warning and parts of Valencia will see more rain later today.

Spain’s national weather agency has issued another weather warning – this time, for the Balearic Islands.

Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera will likely receive large amounts of rain in a very short time, they said.

The agency added: ‘Stay away from flood zones, ravines and gullies.’

Shocking footage has emerged showing a baby being winched up to a helicopter amid Spain’s devastating floods.

A helmeted fireman can be seen holding the child tightly as the two werepulled up to the helicopter.

The clip was posted to social media on Thursday by the Provincial Fire Department Consortium (CPBA) of Alicante.

Floods of this magnitude have not happened in Spain in recent memory, making this storm a historic one.

Scientists link it to climate change, which is also behind increasingly high temperatures and droughts in Spain and the heating up of the Mediterranean Sea.

Human-caused climate change has doubled the likelihood of a storm like this week’s deluge in Valencia, according to a partial analysis issued on Thursday by World Weather Attribution, a group made up of dozens of international scientists who study global warming’s role in extreme weather.

Spain has suffered through an almost two-year drought, making the flooding worse because the dry ground was so hard it could not absorb the rain.

In August 1996, a flood swept away a campsite along the Gallego river in Biescas, in the north east, killing 87 people.

Social networks have channelled the needs of those affected.

Some posted images of missing people in the hope of getting information about their whereabouts, while others launched initiatives such as Suport Mutu, or Mutual Support, which connects requests for help with people who are offering it.

Others organised collections of basic goods throughout the country or launched fundraisers.

Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the most powerful flash flooding in recent memory.

An aid centre in Valencia has received hundreds of volunteers to help the area recover from the floods.

At least 158 people were killed in the flooding, most of them in the area surrounding the city.

The volunteers were seen carrying items such as bottles of water, tinned food, shovels and brooms.

Reme Montero, 59, who travelled from nearby Manises, told Reuters: ‘Any help is needed. This is a catastrophe.’

Residents in communities like Paiporta, where at least 62 people died, and Catarroja, have been walking miles to Valencia to get provisions, passing neighbours from unaffected areas who are bringing water, essential products or shovels to help remove the mud.

Juan Ramon Adsuara, the mayor of Alfafar, one of the hardest hit towns, said the aid is not nearly enough for residents trapped in an ‘extreme situation’.

‘There are people living with corpses at home. It’s very sad. We are organising ourselves, but we are running out of everything,’ he told reporters.

‘We go with vans to Valencia, we buy and we come back, but here we are totally forgotten.’

So far 158 bodies have been recovered, 155 in Valencia, two in the Castilla La Mancha region and one more in Andalusia, after Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory.

The security forces and soldiers are searching for an unknown number of missing people, many feared to still be trapped in wrecked vehicles or flooded garages.

Authorities are repeating over and over, more storms are expected. The Spanish weather agency issued alerts for strong rains in Tarragona, Catalonia, and part of the Balearic Islands.

The death toll from the floods has topped 150, Spanish authorities said, and is likely to increase as workers search for the missing.

Many streets are still blocked by piled-up vehicles and debris, in some cases trapping residents in their homes.

Some places still do not have electricity, running water or stable telephone connections.

This the extraordinary moment a hero off-duty police officer saved a Spanish flood survivor by holding onto her for more than three hours with ropes made out of bed sheets.

Daniel Garcia rescued two people including an elderly woman living below his flat in Benetusser near Valencia.

The situation is still dire in many towns, three days after floods ravaged much of Valencia.

A resident of Alfafar, Spain, which has been decimated by the floods, told state television: ‘There are a lot of elderly people who don’t have medicine.

‘There are children who don’t have food. We don’t have milk, we don’t have water.

‘We have no access to anything. No-one even came to warn us on the first day.’

62-year-old Juan Vicente Perez told Sky News there was ‘no warning at all’ about the flash flooding and it ‘caught everyone by surprise’.

He said: ‘In these circumstances I don’t think anyone could have done anything. It was something out of the ordinary, something we have never seen.’