Image source, EPA

Here's a brief look at what we know about events today in Spain:

• Rescue services and hundreds of soldiers have been working round the clock to find those feared missing in the floods, though officials says it's not clear how many people are still unaccounted for.
• Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez is urging people to stay at home and says the government will assist in Valencia "for as long as necessary".
• We've been getting photos like the one above showing the scale of the devastation in cities like Valencia, where vehicles are piled high and mud blocks the roads
• Spain's Transport Minister Óscar Puente, who spoke on the issue yesterday, says rail services that link Madrid and Valencia could be suspended for as long as three weeks due to the extent of the damage.
• King Felipe says the emergency is "not over"
• More rain is on the way and expected to fall on flood-stricken areas.

Image source, Getty Images

Let's hear now from Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who's in Valencia visiting an emergency coordination centre in one of the most affected cities in the country.

He urges people in flood-hit regions to stay at home and reminds the public that the emergency is "not over", reiterating an earlier remark from King Felipe VI. Warnings of further heavy rain remain for some flood-hit areas.

"Right now the most important thing is to save as many lives as possible", the prime minister says.

Sánchez also thanks emergency service workers and says the government will help the Valencian community "for as long as necessary and with all possible resources".

More than 1,000 emergency workers have been deployed to the area, he adds.

In the latest footage we're seeing of in and around Valencia, rescue teams can be seen working through the night to look for anyone who may have become stuck.

At one point, about 15 seconds into the below clip, some wade through shoulder-high waters in a car park to search the vehicles.

There's also video of floodwater being sucked out of one building, with industrial pipes.

You can watch that, and more, here:

BBC Weather

By Elizabeth Rizzini

The system that produced the devastating rainfall in southern Spain is weakening now - but there is still rain in the forecast, which will only add to the severity of the conditions on the ground and hamper clean-up efforts.

With more rain across some flood stricken areas expected today, weather warnings remain in place.

There are red warnings for further heavy downpours in the eastern coastal province of Castellon to the north of Valencia, where 180mm (7in) could fall. And there are amber warnings further north in Tarragona, with wider yellow warnings across Valencia province, Aragon, western Andalucía and Extremadura.

• For context: The heavy rainfall that led to these flash floods has partly been put down to what's known as a Dana phenomenon. This happens when warmer air, blown in by winds, rises up quickly and meets colder air higher up in the atmosphere, creating an unstable stormy environment. The below video explains this in a little more detail.

Image source, Getty Images

We're just hearing from King Felipe VI of Spain, who says the country's flooding emergency is "not over" as rescuers in the south attempt to find survivors.

Addressing a reception in Madrid, he also expressed condolences to the victims and their families for the "catastrophic" event, which "as we have heard in the media is still not over".

Yesterday, the royal spoke of the "enormous destruction" caused by the flooding.

"The Queen and I," he said, "are with you."

Bethany Bell
Reporting from Valencia

I'm approaching a major bridge over the Turia river in Valencia.

There are police cars blocking access to traffic. Behind them, you can see people walking over the bridge, carrying bags of their possessions, their feet caked in mud.

There’s a big traffic jam as cars are turned away and I can hear sirens from emergency vehicles

An ambulance is trying to pass through the snaking traffic.

Image source, Getty Images

Back in Valencia, which, as we've been saying was hit hard by these floods, it's been announced that high-speed train services between the city and Madrid have been suspended for at least 15 days.

Spain's Transport Minister Óscar Puente, who spoke on the issue yesterday, says tracks that link Madrid and Valencia could even be out of use for up to three weeks due to the extent of the damage.

Two tunnels along the route, the Chiva and Torrent, have collapsed and railways tracks will need to be fully replaced, he's quoted by local media as saying.

Puente says commuter trains have also been affected, with three out of five lines "missing" and some 80km (49.7 miles) of lines "completely destroyed".

Image source, European Commission/X

In Brussels, the European Commission is flying its flags at half mast today.

"Our thoughts are with the victims of the floods in Spain, their families and the rescue teams," it says in a post on X.

"The floods in Spain are not only a national tragedy. It’s also a European one."

Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, adds that Europe mourns "all those who lost their lives during the tragic floods.

"We will face this together," she says.

We've been hearing from local residents of Sedavi, in Valencia, where roads are blocked with mud and piled up vehicles.

Eliú Sánchez says at one point he saw a young man being swept away by the water: "He was on top of a car, it looked like he tried to jump into another car but he was carried away.

"I have been told people were clinging to trees, but the force made them let go and they were carried away, calling for help".

Another resident, Julian Ormeño, says he doesn't feel the authorities have done enough to help.

"I haven't seen the police, nor the mayor, nor anyone else - no one has come to show their face," he says. "They raised the alarm when the water was already here. It was no longer necessary for them to tell me that the flood was coming."

• For context: There has been some anger from locals and officials that the flood warnings came too late. The flooding hit Valencia and the southern Spain region overnight into Wednesday following heavy rainfall.

Various bits of video from yesterday show the damage done to communities in the city of Valencia, where the large majority of the 95 people known to have died were killed.

From rescue efforts to flooded roads and huge piles of cars, here's some of the footage:

That's the question climatologist Friederike Otto has been answering on Radio 4's Today programme - here's a snapshot of what she was saying.

"Of course there have been floods before and also other extreme weather events - but what we see in more recent years, ever stronger, is that many of these extreme weather events are more intense than they would have been without climate change."

Otto says there have been a lot of floods this year, similar to the ones we're now seeing in Spain, where "a lot of rain comes down in a relatively short time which makes it hard for people to get out of harm’s way". She goes on to say that climate change adds extra water, sometimes between 10 to 20%, to these flooding events and "that can make a huge difference in terms of damages".

"We know from very basic physics that a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapour, and that needs to get out of the atmosphere and it does that in particularly heavy bursts of rainfall."

Nicky Schiller
Reporting from Valencia

I'm in the La Torre area of the city of Valencia, and as the sun begins to rise you can really get a sense of the devastation in this area.

I've just walked for 10 minutes along the road and I've lost count of the dozens and dozens of cars that have been tossed around.

In front of me is a pile of nine cars outside a local bank. All along the road is thick mud and debris.

Locals are walking into the city and I've seen some returning with big bottles of water. The police are patrolling the area.

It's hard to describe but it feels like a scene from a disaster movie - however, this is real for the people living in this area. It's going to take a long time to repair the damage I have seen just in this one small area.

The latest images from Valencia show the work that continued overnight to clear the city's streets of piled up cars, and search for anyone unaccounted for.

Here's what we're seeing:

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Bethany Bell
Reporting from Valencia

Spain is reeling from what has been described as one of the worst natural disasters in its recent history.

Rescue workers are struggling to find those feared missing and officials say it’s not clear how many people are still unaccounted for.

Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to help with the rescue effort. Some places can only be reached by helicopter.

Some local officials have complained that the flood warnings came too late, while Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said yesterday that those affected would not be abandoned.

He extended his condolences to those who had lost their loved ones. The whole of Spain weeps with you, he said.

There are fears the death toll will rise further. And, as we reported yesterday, three days of mourning have been declared.

Image source, EPA

Spain has been coming to terms with the deadly impact of the flash flooding that ravaged southern communities over the past 24 hours.

The last update from Valencian authorities at 19:30 CET (18:30 GMT) put the death toll in the region at 92, with another two people killed in the neighbouring region of Castilla-La Mancha.

A 71-year-old British man also died hours after being rescued from his home in Alhaurin de la Torre, in Malaga, according to Andalusia’s regional leader.

Our correspondent Nicky Schiller has only just landed in Valencia and says the rain has receded, but earlier Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged residents in the area, as well as in Andalusia and Catalonia, to remain cautious as red and orange weather warnings remain in place across large swathes of the territory.

Territorial policy minister Ángel Víctor Torres said it was still unclear how many people were missing after more than a year’s worth of rain fell in southern Spain in barely eight hours on Tuesday.

And as King Felipe VI spoke of the "enormous destruction" the flooding caused, Torres announced Spain will observe three days of mourning from tomorrow until Saturday. In the meantime, search and rescue operations will continue.

We’ll be ending our coverage of the flooding in Spain shortly but you can read more on how the events unravelled in our story here and our Europe reporter Laura Gozzi has brought together testimonies from people affected by the flooding.

You can also learn more about the weather phenomenon that caused the flash flooding in our handy video explainer.

Earlier today, the region of Catalonia, in the north east of Spain, was placed under maximum alert as the heavy rains causing flooding in the Valencia region moved northwards.

Catalonian Interior Minister Nuria Parlon now says they are ruling out activating the emergency flood plan.

Speaking in a press conference, she confirms schools will be open tomorrow.

"The forecasts we have now do not make us think that we have to protect ourselves against a flood like the one that has unfortunately happened in Valencia," Parlon adds.

Image source, EPA

Insurance analysts in Spain predict that the floods seen Wednesday will mark the most expensive natural disaster to ever hit the country, Spanish outlet El País is reporting.

Flooding in Biscay in 1983 was previously the most expensive. At that time, floods swept through the area of Bilbao and nearby municipalities, external, killing 34 people. Insurance payments for the disaster hit €977m (£818m), adjusted for inflation.

"It was tremendous, with rainfall that had not been seen in 500 years, but what has happened in Valencia could be even worse," Pilar González de Frutos, the technical assistant director of operations for the Insurance Compensation Consortium at the time of the Biscay disaster, tells the outlet.

There is a crucial difference between Valencia and Biscay this time around: In 2024, Spain drives more cars, meaning the shock to car insurers could be significantly higher.

Nicky Schiller
BBC News, in Valencia

I landed at Valencia Airport about an hour ago and I'm trying to get to one of the flood hit areas which would normally take about 15 minutes in a car but all the roads are at a standstill. It's gridlocked.

I saw a convoy of about 12 emergency vehicles whizz by at one point but many people have got out of their cars. Police are directing traffic away from the roads that have been closed.

Getting off the plane you wouldn't realise there had been a disaster in this area, it isn't even raining now but as soon as you try to move around you can see how this region is struggling to cope.

BBC World Service

People affected by the floods in Valencia have been speaking to the BBC OS programme about their experiences.

Antonio, in La Torre, tells us: “I heard strange noises outside coming from the street and when I looked out I saw the street had turned into a river. […] I couldn't believe it because it wasn't even raining”.

Later he “saw cars floating in the water” and “the water broke through some walls”. He says he was safe but some of his “friends have lost their houses” and “don't know where people are”.

Serena, in Gandia, says “many of my friends are stuck in the city, unable to return to their villages, some of them not knowing if their relatives and friends are alive or dead”.

In her town, she says “the roads have been completely destroyed”, and that the supermarkets are empty with “not enough bottled water for everyone”.

Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter

In hard-hit Paiporta, residents have described seeing water rush forward “like a tsunami.”

Water rushed across motorways, stranding one 21-year-old Paiporta resident and his parents on a bridge.

"We saw two cars being swept away by the current and we don't know if there were people inside," another man told Las Provincias. "We'd never seen anything like it."

Warnings to the public about the threat of a flood were delayed, some critics have say: alerts arrived more than 12 hours after warnings were issued by Spain’s meteorological agency.

• 'Like a tsunami':Spaniards recount horror of deadly floods