More than 70 people died in severe flash floods in Spain

More than 70 people have died after severe flash floods in Spain, officials said.

According to the Associated Press, flooding hit cities in southeastern Spain from Malaga to Valencia on Tuesday, October 29th.

Government officials told a Spanish newspaper El Pais On Wednesday, October 30, authorities announced that the death toll from the floods in Valencia had risen to 72.

According to Reuters and the BBC, Valencia received a year's worth of rainfall in about eight hours. It is the deadliest flood in Spain in three decades and more than 140,000 people are without power in Valencia.

It is also unclear how many people are missing. Ángel Víctor Torres, Spain's minister for territorial policy, said: “The fact that we cannot provide information about the missing people shows the extent of the tragedy,” the AP reported.

Images from flood-affected areas show damaged cars, people walking through floodwaters and mounds of earth deposits left behind after floodwaters receded in some areas.

According to ABC News, Valencia authorities said more than 200 people were rescued from cars after being trapped in the floodwaters.

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Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, told the AP that the mud was 30 centimeters deep in some areas.

“Everything is a total wreck,” she added. “Everything is ready to be thrown away.”

The Spanish government has declared three days of national mourning following the deadly floods, according to the Spanish government The Guardian.

The European Union has offered Spain its support. In a post on X, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Spanish: “Europe is ready to help.”

“What we are seeing in Spain is devastating,” von der Leyen wrote in English. “My thoughts are with the victims, their families and the rescue teams.”

Spanish President Pedro Sánchez expressed the government's solidarity with the families affected by the tragedy in a Spanish-language post on X.

“We will help you as long as it is necessary,” Sánchez wrote. “We won’t leave you alone. All of Spain is with you.”

Also Spain's King Felipe VI. shared a post

This is the deadliest flooding since the Pyrenees flood in 1996, which killed 87 people, Reuters reported.