Devastating floods kill 140 in Spain

At least 140 people have been killed in floods caused by a year's worth of rain falling in eight hours around the city of Valencia in eastern Spain.

The aftermath of the downpour on Tuesday has left tens of thousands of people without power. Rail services between Valencia and Madrid could be out of action for up to three weeks and cars have been swept away in floodwaters, while more bad weather is forecast.

"There are already very strong storms in the area, especially in the north of Castellon," said a statement from Spanish state weather agency AEMET.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who was due to visit the city on Thursday, said, "For those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain weeps … our priority is to help you. We are putting all the resources necessary so that we can recover from this tragedy."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said a civil protection mechanism could be put into action, with Spain able to call upon support from the other 26 member states of the European Union, should it want to. "Europe is ready to help," she added.

Insurance experts say the flooding could end up being the most expensive natural disaster Spain has ever seen, surpassing the floods in areas around the northern coastal city of Bilbao in 1983, which killed 34 people and saw insurance payouts of hundreds of millions of euros.

"(That) was tremendous, with rainfall that had not been seen in 500 years, but what has happened in Valencia could be even worse," said Pilar Gonzalez de Frutos, who was a senior figure dealing with compensation in 1983.

The Associated Press reported that the latest confirmed death toll of 140 is the worst caused by flooding in Europe since 2021, when at least 243 people died in floods across Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Romania. It is also the most deadly flooding incident to hit Spain since at least 150 people died in the southeast of the country in 1973.

Linda Speight, a lecturer at the University of Oxford's School of Geography and the Environment, said climate change was making such extreme weather incidents harder to anticipate, and their consequences even harder to manage.

"Climate change is changing the structure of our weather systems, creating conditions where intense thunderstorms stall over a region leading to record-breaking rainfall, a pattern that we are seeing time and time again," she said.

"It is incredibly hard to issue warnings for intense thunderstorms because the exact location of the heaviest rainfall is often not known in advance."