Flash floods in eastern Spain swept away cars, turned village streets into rivers, disrupted rail lines and highways and killed at least 72 people in the worst natural disaster to hit the European nation in recent memory, Paralel.Az reports citing ABC News.

Rainstorms that started Tuesday and continued Wednesday caused flooding in a wide swath of southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy torrents tumbled vehicles down streets at high speeds, while pieces of wood swirled in the water alongside household items. Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers stranded on the roofs of cars.

Emergency services in the eastern region of Valencia confirmed a death toll of 70 people on Wednesday. Another two casualties were reported in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha region.

“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday. He said six residents of his town had perished and several more were unaccounted for.

“We were trapped like rats. Cars and trash containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to 3 meters (9.8 feet),” he said.

Searchers worked to find survivors and victims, with countless numbers still missing. Spain’s government said it would declare three days of mourning starting Thursday for those killed in the devastating flash floods.

“For those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised address. “Our priority is to help you. We are putting all the resources necessary so that we can recover from this tragedy.”

Over 1,600 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were deployed to the devastated areas, and rescue personnel were traveling to affected areas from across the country. Spain’s central government set up a crisis committee to help coordinate rescue efforts.

The elderly were the most vulnerable. RTVE broadcast footage of seniors in chairs and wheelchairs with waters rising over their knees at a nursing home, and a military unit rescuing an elderly couple from the top story of their house in the bucket of a bulldozer.

Television reports showed videos shot by panicked residents documenting waters flooding the ground floors of apartment buildings, streams bursting their banks and bridges giving way. People gasped as they pointed to what they feared could be bodies bobbing in the swift brown flood.

Spain’s national weather service called the rainfall “extraordinary" in parts of Valencia.

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years. Nothing, however, compared to the devastation over the last two days, which recalls floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021 in which 230 people were killed.

The death toll will likely rise with other regions yet to report victims and search efforts continuing in areas with difficult access.

“We are facing a very difficult situation,” minister of territory policies Ángel Víctor Torres said. “The fact that we can’t give a number of the missing persons indicates the magnitude of the tragedy.”

In the village of Letur in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha region, Mayor Sergio Marín Sánchez said five people were missing.

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At least 51 people have been killed in flash floods sweeping the eastern Spanish region of Valencia following torrential rain on Tuesday that left roads and towns under water, local authorities said on Wednesday, Paralel.Az reports citing Reuters.

Rescuers using dinghies worked in the dark to scour the floodwaters, rescuing several people, television pictures from the town of Utiel showed, and emergency services were still working to reach the worst-hit areas.

Carlos Mazon, the regional leader of Valencia, said some people remained isolated in inaccessible locations.

"If (emergency services) have not arrived, it's not due to a lack of means or predisposition, but a problem of access," Mazon told a press conference, adding that reaching certain areas was "absolutely impossible".

Dozens of videos shared on social media overnight appeared to show people trapped by the floodwaters, with some climbing into trees to avoid being swept away.

Firefighters could be seen freeing drivers whose cars were stranded in flooded streets in the town of Alzira, online videos showed.

Emergency services in the region urged citizens to avoid all road travel and to follow further updates from official sources, and the a military unit specialised in rescue operations was deployed in some places to help local emergency workers.

Spain's state weather agency AEMET on Tuesday declared a red alert in Valencia, a major citrus-growing region, with some areas such as Turis and Utiel recording 200 mm (7.9 inches) of rainfall. It has since lowered the alert to yellow as the rain had largely stopped.

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

Lower house Speaker Francina Armengol said Wednesday's parliamentary session would be called off because of the disaster.

The death toll appeared to be the worst in Europe from flooding since 2021 when at least 185 people died in Germany.

It is the worst flood-related catastrophe in Spain since 1996, when 87 people died and 180 were injured in a flash flood near Biesca in the Pyrenees.

Scientists say extreme weather events in the region are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Meteorologists think the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe.