A shocking fast-motion video has revealed the devastating frequency of lightning strikes on Spain’s southern and eastern coast as the country is hit by floods that have already killed more than 200 people in Valencia alone.
The video, shared by WxNB, a weather mapping service, showed tourist spots such as Malaga, Marbella and Murcia being flooded by lightning around 3am on Tuesday as heavy rain fell.
Lightning was then seen moving up the east coast of Spain, hitting Alicante and Benidorm, before ending up in Valencia, which was devastated by flooding that night.
The storms also moved inland from the southern coast, bombarding Seville, before eventually passing through Madrid and Zaragoza, while another cell briefly hit Barcelona.
Parts of the Valencia region in eastern Spain were inundated with more than a year’s worth of rain in just eight hours on Tuesday, causing monstrous flash floods.
The torrents of water destroyed entire towns and a An unknown number of people remain missing and the death toll is expected to rise.
The video, shared by WxNB, a weather mapping service, showed tourist spots such as Malaga, Marbella and Murcia flooded by lightning.
Lightning was then seen moving up the east coast of Spain, hitting Alicante and Benidorm, before ending up in Valencia.
Images taken on Thursday show mangled cars abandoned on roads smeared with brown mud and other debris.
“Unfortunately there are dead people inside some vehicles,” warned today the Minister of Transport of Spain, Óscar Puente.
A 71-year-old British man suffering from hypothermia was identified as one of the dead on Wednesday afternoon.
Walls of running water turned narrow streets into death traps and generated rivers that destroyed the ground floors of houses and devastated everything in their path.
The aftermath, which has seen streets packed with vehicles and water rushing down normally busy roads, appears eerily similar to the damage caused by a strong hurricane or tsunami.
Aerial photographs have revealed the apocalyptic scale of the destruction caused by the Valencia floods
Aerial image showing mud-stained roads near Valencia covered with smashed cars and other debris.
Wrecked vehicles, tree branches, downed power lines and household items, all covered in a layer of mud, littered the streets of Utiel, just one of dozens of cities in the region hardest hit.
Police revealed today that looters have taken advantage of the catastrophic flooding, robbing abandoned shops of high-value goods such as computers, mobile phones and perfumes.
Thirty-nine suspects have so far been arrested in the Valencia region as the Civil Guard continues to crack down on people hoping to profit from the chaos.
Meanwhile, desperate families have resorted to taking food and water from supermarkets, with heartbreaking images showing children rummaging through the aisles of vandalized food stores.
The army has been contracted to manage the search and rescue operation and 1,000 members of the Spanish Armed Forces were mobilized yesterday.
A terrifying clip shows an entire bridge in Valencia washed away by floods.
A boat is stranded in a field after flash floods in the Valencian Community
An aerial photograph shows the destroyed rice fields of Albufera in an area affected by heavy rains
The Paiporta bridge, in the town of the same name, was completely devastated when the river below overflowed its banks and continued to rise.
Horrified onlookers watched in horror as the concrete structure crumbled in the deluge.
The scenes in Paiporta, where at least one baby was counted among the dead, are among many that have been captured by locals.
Rainfall in the Valencia town of Chiva reached a staggering 491 liters per square meter on Tuesday, according to Spain’s meteorological agency.
The city, just 32 kilometers west of Valencia, endured this amount of rain in just eight hours: the typical amount of rain seen in a full year and an “extraordinary accumulation,” the agency added.