Spain Valencia floods latest: Death toll soars to 158 as PM warns ‘this hasn’t finished’ amid new storm forecast

As rescue workers continue trying to recover the dozens of people still missing, here is what we know on Thursday afternoon:

– At least 140 people have been killed after eastern Spain was hit by flash floods.

– Ministers have warned that the death toll is likely to rise as there are “many missing people”.

– More severe weather warnings have been issued in the region for today.

– A 71-year-old British man is among the dead.

– The rainstorms started on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday which triggered the devastating flooding.

– More than 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response unit have been deployed to the most devastated areas.

– The main areas affected are the eastern province of Valencia and neighbouring regions.

The death toll in eastern Spain has risen again, as emergency workers continue their desperate search for survivors.

At least 158 people have been killed by the flash flooding – a sharp increase in the 95 people confirmed dead this morning.

155 of those deaths were confirmed in the hardest-hit region of Valencia.

A woman is still searching for her lost relative amid the destroyed houses and flooded streets of Valencia.

As the waters recede, Marta Rodríguez Múria and her family hold onto hope that her cousin David can be rescued alive. The 32-year-old told The Independent: “The last we heard, he was driving to work.

“His car was found abandoned between Buñol and Chiva, but he’s vanished.”

Just moments before the storm struck, her cousin reached out to her aunt, calling for help as he was caught in the storm’s fury. They haven’t heard anything since.

She added: “We don’t know if he’s safe or if the water swept him away. My aunt is inconsolable. We’re all heartbroken, trapped in this nightmare.”

In Torrente, where she lives, people have been cut off from the outside world. Roads are destroyed, trains are canceled, and supermarkets are filled with panic buyers.

She added: “I’m left without food or water, and I can’t even pay for supplies because all the systems are down.

“We’re just waiting for a glimmer of news, something that tells us he’s safe. At this point, we just want to hear something—good or bad.”

Marta claimed people were not warned about the severe weather until it was “too late.”

She said: “I feel powerless. There should have been better warnings. People were sent to work as if there was no danger coming. The material damage is one thing, but many lives could have been spared.”

The official death toll has risen dramatically to 140, Spain’s state-run news agency EFE has said.

The new figure is a sharp rise from the previous number of 95, reported this morning.

Spain’s prime minister spoke earlier today as he visited some of the areas worst affected by this week’s flash floods.

He urged residents to stay vigilant as he warned the effects of flash floding are “not finished”

Speaking at the Emergency Services Coordination Centre in Valencia, Pedro Sanchez also declared Valencia as a disaster zone and raised the official crisis level to level two.

He told people affected by the flooding to stay at home, as many in the region brace themselves for more extreme weather today.

“We will not abandon the people of Valencia,” he said. “We will be here with you all the time necessary and deploying all resources necessary. Our priority, obviously, right now is to find victims, to find missing persons. Also, so that friends or family can really address the anxiety that families, victims and missing persons are going through.”

Climate change made the 10 deadliest extreme weather events over the past two decades worse, contributing to the deaths of more than 570,000 people, scientists have said.

Climate scientists said the finding “underscores how dangerous extreme weather events have already become” with just 1.3C of global warming above pre-industrial levels.

It also highlights the urgency of cutting the greenhouse gas emissions driving rising temperatures and more extreme weather, they said, as the world is currently on track for 3C of warming by the end of the century – a level recently described by UN chief Antonio Guterres as “catastrophic”.

David Lammy has sent his condolences to Spain on behald of the UK government.

The foreign secretary wrote on X: “The UK government expresses its heartfelt condolences to those affected by the tragic floods across Spain – our thoughts are with those that have lost their lives, their families and all those affected.”

He added that he offered the UK’s full support to his counterpart, José Manuel Albares.

As emergency services continue their desperate search for those still missing in Spain, many are questioning what caused the devastating flash flooding which has killed at least 95 people.

The region is known to see be particularly vulnerable torrential autumn downpours, caused by a weather phenomenon known as the “cold drop” or DANA.

However, the destructive weather system is believed to be worsening in the wake of climate change, accumulating in this week’s flash flooding being the worst the region has seen in three decades.

When cold air blows over warm Mediterranean waters it causes hotter air to rise quickly and form dense, water-laden clouds that can remain over the same area for many hours, raising their destructive potential.

Eastern and Southern Spain are particularly susceptible to the phenomenon due to its position between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea