Another 500 troops have been sent to Valencia amid outrage over the response to the floods

After returning home, local resident Juan Perez said: “My whole life, my memories.

“My parents lived there. And now everything is gone in one night.”

The civil protection agency controlled by the regional government issued an emergency alert to the phones of people in and around the city of Valencia after 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday as the floodwaters flashed rapidly. is growing in many areas and in some cases is already wreaking havoc.

Juan Gonzalez, who lives in the town of Aldaya, said the area was prone to flash floods.

“It’s outrageous that our local government didn’t do anything about it, knowing it was going to happen,” he said.

In the devastated city of Paiport, where more than 60 deaths have been reported so far, residents have expressed their frustration that help has been slow to arrive.

“There aren’t enough firefighters, the shovels haven’t arrived,” Paco Clemente, a 33-year-old pharmacist, told AFP as he helped clean up a friend’s house.