Unprecedented floods claim at least 158 lives in Spain

Rescuers are searching for bodies following monstrous flash floods in Spain that claimed at least 158 lives.

Spain's worst natural disaster this century left a trail of destruction and fears that more horrors will be uncovered from the ubiquitous layers of mud that walls of water left in their wake late on Tuesday and early Wednesday.

"Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles," Spain's Transport Minister ?scar Puente said.

The widespread damage recalled the aftermath of a hurricane or tsunami.

Cars piled on one another like fallen dominoes, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items all mired in mud that covered streets in dozens of communities in the hardest-hit region of Valencia.

Rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that tore through homes and businesses, sweeping away cars, people and everything else in its path.

The floods demolished bridges and left roads unrecognisable.

Lu?s S?nchez, a welder, was one of the lucky ones when the storm turned the V-31 highway south of Valencia city into a floating graveyard strewn with hundreds of vehicles.

He said he saved several people.

"I saw bodies floating past. I called out but nothing," S?nchez said.

"The firefighters took the elderly first, when they could get in. I am from nearby so I tried to help and rescue people. People were crying all over, they were trapped."

Regional authorities said late on Wednesday it seemed no one was left stranded on rooftops or in cars in need of rescue after helicopters had saved some 70 people.

"Our priority is to find the victims and the missing so we can help end the suffering of their families," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S?nchez said after meeting with regional officials and emergency services in Valencia on Thursday, the first of three official days of mourning.

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

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.

The greatest pain was concentrated in Paiporta, a community of 25,000 next to Valencia city where mayor Maribel Albalat said on Thursday that 62 people had perished.

"(Paiporta) never has floods, we never have this kind of problem. And we found a lot of elderly people in the town centre," Albalat told national broadcaster RTVE. "There were also a lot of people who came to get their cars out of their garages ... it was a real trap.'

While the most suffering was inflicted on municipalities near the city of Valencia, the storms unleashed their fury over huge swaths of the south and eastern coast of the Iberian peninsula.

Two fatalities were reported in the neighbouring Castilla La Mancha region and one in southern Andalusia.

The regional president for Castilla La Mancha, Emilion Garc?a-Page, said that at least one Guardia Civil police officer was among several missing people in the town of Letur.

Homes were left without water as far southwest as Malaga in Andalusia, where a high-speed train derailed on Tuesday night although none of the nearly 300 passengers were hurt.

Greenhouses and farms across southern Spain, known as Europe's garden for its exported produce, were also ruined by heavy rains and flooding.

The storms spawned a freak tornado in Valencia and a hail storm that punched holes in cars in Andalusia.

Heavy rains continued on Thursday farther north as the Spanish weather agency issued a red alert for several counties in Castell?n, in the eastern Valencia region, and for Tarragona in Catalonia. An orange alert was issued for southwest Cadiz.

"This storm front is still with us," the prime minister said.

"Stay home and heed the official recommendation and you will help save lives."

More than 1000 soldiers from Spain's emergency rescue units joined regional and local emergency workers in the search for bodies and survivors. The soldiers had recovered 22 bodies and rescued 110 people by Wednesday night.