Flooding kills 51 in Spain's Valencia region

Floods triggered by torrential rain in Spain's eastern Valencia region have left at least 51 people dead, rescuers said on Wednesday, as authorities scrambled to respond to the rare disaster.

Heavy rain and fierce winds have lashed southern and eastern Spain since the beginning of the week, sparking floods in Valencia and the southern Andalusia region.

The "provisional number of dead is at 51 people", the regional emergency services wrote on X, adding bodies were still being recovered and identified.

"Several hundred people" remained trapped on two motorways in the region, according to the region's fire service chief Jose Miguel Basset.

Parts of the Valencia region are without power with phone lines also down, and some places were cut off by flooded roads, regional chief Carlos Mazon told reporters.

Cars lay scattered and piled on top of each other on roads near the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia after a mudslide, an AFP journalist saw.

Residents tried clearing the sludge from their homes with buckets and waded through waist-high waters in an attempt to save their belongings.

Maria Carmen, a resident of Valencia city, told Spanish public broadcaster TVE she climbed through her car window and sheltered on the roof of a van for hours to escape the floodwater.

King Felipe VI said he was "devastated" by the news on X and offered "our heartfelt condolences" to families of the victims, thanking emergency services for their "titanic" response.

The prime minister of neighbouring Portugal, Luis Montenegro, expressed his country's "greatest regret" and "solidarity with all the Spanish people" in a message on X, offering "all necessary help".

- 'Unprecedented phenomenon' -

The central government's representative in the Valencia region, Pilar Bernabe, said emergency military response units were being sent from several regions to reinforce the rescue work.

Defence Minister Margarita Robles told reporters "more than a thousand troops" backed by helicopters were being deployed in the face of "an unprecedented phenomenon".

Emergency services in the Valencia region rescued almost 200 people overnight who were being sheltered in fire stations, Basset added.

Footage showed torrents of water gushing through streets Tuesday washing away cars, while rail and air transport was severely disrupted.

The Spanish parliament held a minute's silence on Wednesday to honour the victims before a usually raucous session of questions to the government.

The flood toll is the deadliest in Spain since August 1996 when 86 people died in the northeastern region of Aragon near the Pyrenees mountains bordering France.

Meteorologists have said the storm was caused by cold air moving over the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea, which produced intense rain clouds.

The downpours are expected to continue until at least Thursday.

Scientists warn that extreme weather such as heatwaves and storms is becoming more intense as a result of human-induced climate change.