By Eva Manez and David Latona

LA ALCUDIA, Spain (Reuters) – At least 95 people have been killed in what is likely to be the deadliest flood to hit Spain in its modern history, after torrential rains lashed the eastern region of Valencia, sweeping away bridges and buildings, they said. local authorities on Wednesday.

Forecasters said a year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours in parts of Valencia on Tuesday, causing congestion on highways and submerging farmland in a region that produces two-thirds of the citrus grown in Spain, a major world exporter.

Residents in the worst-hit areas described seeing people climbing onto the roofs of their cars as a large wave of brown water gushed through the streets, uprooting trees and dragging chunks of masonry from buildings.

“It’s a river that has passed,” said Denis Hlavaty, who waited for rescue on a curb at the gas station where he works in the regional capital. “The doors were ripped off and we spent the night there, surrounded by water that was 2 meters (6.5 feet) deep.”

Defense Minister Margarita Robles told Cadena Ser radio station that a military unit specialized in rescue operations would begin combing mud and debris with sniffer dogs in the worst-hit areas on Thursday.

Asked if the death toll could rise, she said: “Unfortunately, we are not optimistic.” The teams brought with them 50 mobile morgues.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez vowed to rebuild the infrastructure that was destroyed and said in a televised address: “For those who at this moment are still looking for their loved ones, all of Spain is crying with you.”

Footage shot by emergency services from a helicopter showed collapsed bridges and cars and trucks piled on top of each other on highways between flooded fields outside the city of Valencia.

Trains to the cities of Madrid and Barcelona were canceled due to flooding, and schools and other essential services were suspended in the worst-hit areas, officials said.

Electricity company i-DE, owned by Europe’s biggest utility Iberdrola, said around 150,000 customers in Valencia were without power.

Emergency services in the region have urged citizens to avoid all road travel and to follow further official advice.

Some parts of the Valencia area, such as the cities of Turis, Chiva or Bunol, recorded more than 400 mm (15-3/4 inches) of rainfall, prompting the state meteorological agency AEMET to declare a red alert on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the rain dropped to amber.

There was also flooding in other parts of the country, including the southern region of Andalusia, and forecasters warned of worse weather to come as the storm moved north-east.

“(Flood waters) took a lot of dogs, a lot of horses, they took everything,” said Antonio Carmona, a construction worker and resident of the Andalusian city of Alora.

Deadliest Spanish floods

The death toll, which includes three people in other regions, appears to be the worst in Europe from flooding since 2021, when at least 185 people died in Germany. It is probably Spain’s worst in its modern history, as the death toll surpassed 87 people killed in a 1996 flood near the town of Biescas in the Pyrenees mountains.

In 1957, dozens of people died in floods in the city of Valencia that led to the construction of a new course of the Turia River to prevent flooding in the city center.

Andalusia’s regional leader, Juanma Moreno, said a 71-year-old Briton died in hospital of heart failure after being rescued from his flooded home in Malaga while suffering from hypothermia.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told X that Europe is ready to help. “What we are seeing in Spain is devastating,” she told X.

ASAJA, one of Spain’s largest farmers’ groups, said on Tuesday that significant crop damage was expected.

Spain is the world’s largest exporter of fresh and dried oranges, according to trade data provider the Economic Complexity Observatory, and Valencia accounts for about 60 percent of the country’s citrus production, according to the Valencian Institute for Agricultural Research.

Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Meteorologists believe that warming the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in worsening the torrential rains.

“Events of this type, which used to occur many decades apart, are now becoming more frequent and their destructive capacity is greater,” said Ernesto Rodriguez Camino, chief state meteorologist and member of the Spanish Meteorological Association .

(Reporting by Eva Manez, Emma Pinedo, David Latona and Inti Landauro; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Helen Popper, Alison Williams, Gareth Jones and Sandra Maler)