Spain races to save victims as floods kill 95

Residents walk along a mud-covered street in the flood-hit municipality of Paiporta, in the province of Valencia, Spain, 30 Oct. 2024.

Spain braced for a heavier human toll on Wednesday after 95 people died in flash floods that launched muddy waters through towns, tossed cars, and wreaked transport havoc.

Rescuers were expected to find more bodies in the European country's deadliest flood in more than 50 years, and three days of official mourning were due to start on Thursday.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said that Türkiye is "deeply saddened" over the loss of lives resulting from the recent floods in Valencia and the surrounding areas.

Heavy downpours and fierce winds have lashed Spain since the beginning of the week after a storm formed over the Mediterranean Sea, with up to a year's worth of rain falling in just hours in some areas.

The body coordinating emergency services in the eastern Valencia region announced a provisional death toll of 92, adding that bodies were still being recovered and identified.

Two people died in neighboring Castilla-La Mancha, and another victim was reported in Andalusia in the south, both regions' leaders told journalists.

The toll is likely to rise because "there are many missing people," government minister Angel Victor Torres told public broadcaster TVE.

The head of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazon, told reporters that there were no longer people to save from roofs or terraces through aerial means.

Emergency services carried out 200 rescues on the ground and 70 aerial evacuations throughout the day, he said.

A sea of piled-up cars and mud swamped streets in Sedavi, a suburb of the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia, AFP journalists saw.