Latest Spain floods: New red alert in Spanish region – as residents told to ‘expect more fatalities’ | World news

Crews continue to search for bodies in stranded cars and buildings after the torrential floods in Spain.

The floods have claimed at least 158 ​​lives, with 155 deaths confirmed in the eastern Valencia region alone.

But an unknown number of people are still missing and more victims may be found.

“Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,” Spain’s transport minister, Oscar Puente, said.

While the most suffering was inflicted in regions near the city of Valencia, the storms also unleashed their fury on much of the southern and eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

Two deaths were confirmed in the nearby Castilla La Mancha region and one in southern Andalusia.

Spain has been suffering from an almost two-year drought, meaning that when the deluge occurred, the ground was so hard that it could not absorb the rain, leading to flooding.

The severe weather event caught regional government officials by surprise.

And Spain’s national weather service said it rained more in eight hours in the Valencian city of Chiva than it had in the previous 20 months.