Spanish rescuers on Wednesday scrambled to save people trapped by surging tides of muddy water in floods that killed at least 95 people, tossed cars and wreaked transport havoc.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged citizens to remain vigilant as the danger persisted and three days of mourning were declared in the European nation’s worst such disaster in more than 50 years.

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 neighbouring 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.

Stunned residents attempted to clean the sludge and grabbed buckets to bail out water from their homes ahead of a long night without water or electricity.

In Ribarroja del Turia on the outskirts of Valencia city, town councillor Esther Gomez said workers were stuck overnight in an industrial estate “without a chance of rescuing them” as streams overflowed.

“It had been a long time since this happened and we’re scared,” she told AFP.

According to Spain’s weather service AEMET, the town of Chiva, west of Valencia, recorded 491 mm of rain in just eight hours on Tuesday — almost equalling a year’s worth.

• ‘Spain weeps’ –

Sanchez said the government’s “absolute priority” was to help the victims. “All of Spain weeps with all of you… We won’t abandon you,” he said in a televised address.

The disaster could not be considered over and “we will deploy all the necessary resources for as long as necessary so that we can recover from this tragedy,” he added.

King Felipe VI said he was “devastated” by the news on X and offered “heartfelt condolences” to families of the victims, thanking emergency services for their “titanic” response.

Damage to telephone networks and flooded roads were hampering efforts to reach stricken communities in the Valencia region.

Some 155,000 homes are without electricity in Valencia region due to the storm, energy company Iberdrola said, adding that it had dispatched 500 workers to restore power there.

Defence Minister Margarita Robles told reporters more than 1,000 troops backed by helicopters were being deployed in the face of “an unprecedented phenomenon”.

The European Union activated its Copernicus satellite system to help coordinate Spanish rescue teams, commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference in Brussels.

The bloc has also offered to use its civil protection mechanism to send further reinforcements, she said.

• ‘Unprecedented phenomenon’ –
Officials in the Valencia region announced survivors were being sheltered in temporary accommodation such as fire stations.

Rail and air transport remained severely disrupted. The high-speed line between Valencia and Madrid will remain suspended over the next four days at least, rail infrastructure authority Adif announced.

The downpours are expected to continue. AEMET issued a red alert for heavy rains in the countryside near the southern coastal city of Cadiz and rough weather was expected in the northeastern region of Catalonia.

The flood toll is Spain’s deadliest since 1973 when at least 150 people were estimated to have died in the southeastern provinces of Granada, Murcia and Almeria.

Meteorologists have said the latest storm was caused by cold air moving over Mediterranean’s warm waters, which produced intense rain clouds, a phenomenon common for the time of year.

Scientists warn extreme weather events such as storms are becoming more intense, last longer and occur more frequently as a result of human-induced climate change.

Such extremes “can overwhelm the ability of existing defences and contingency plans to cope, even in a relatively wealthy country like Spain”, said Leslie Mabon, senior lecturer in environmental systems at Britain’s Open University.

The heavy death toll came after warnings for extreme rainfall, suggesting Valencia’s flood alert system failed, said Hannah Cloke, hydrology professor at the University of Reading.

“People just don’t know what to do when faced with a flood, or when they hear warnings.”

Israel has announced the killing of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7 attack, calling his death a “heavy blow” to the Palestinian group it has been fighting for more than a year.

The Israeli military said that “after a year-long pursuit”, troops “eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organisation, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip” on Wednesday.

Hamas has not confirmed his death.

Today evil has suffered a heavy blow,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“While the war was “not over yet”, Netanyahu said Sinwar’s death was an “important landmark in the decline of the evil rule of Hamas”.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Sinwar was a “mass murderer… responsible for the massacre and atrocities of October 7”, while President Isaac Herzog hailed the killing of the militant leader behind “heinous acts of terrorism”.

Israel accuses Sinwar of masterminding the deadliest attack in Israeli history, and had been hunting him down since the start of the Gaza war.

He rose through the ranks of the Palestinian militant group to become first its leader in Gaza, then its overall head after the killing in July of political chief Ismail Haniyeh.

Israel’s announcement on Sinwar comes weeks after it assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a massive strike in Lebanon, where the Israeli military has been at war since late September.

A slew of other Iran-backed militant commanders have also been killed in recent months.

With Hamas massively weakened more than a year into the Gaza war, Sinwar’s death could deal a seismic blow to the organisation.

US President Joe Biden, whose government is Israel’s top arms provider, said: “This is a good day for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.”

“There is now the opportunity for a ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power, and for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

Calls for hostage release

Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi said that “we are settling the score with Sinwar, who is responsible for that very difficult day a year ago”, vowing to keep fighting “until we capture all the terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre and bring all the hostages home”.

Israel’s Katz said Sinwar’s death could “lead to a new reality in Gaza, one that is without Hamas”

The Israeli military earlier said it was checking whether Sinwar was one of three militants killed in an operation in Gaza, with an Israeli security official telling AFP that a DNA test was conducted.

Israel has been at war with Hamas since the October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 42,438 people, the majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which the UN considers reliable.

Following the attack, Netanyahu vowed to crush Hamas and bring home all 251 hostages seized by militants in their cross-border onslaught. Ninety-seven remain in Gaza, including 34 Israeli officials say are dead.

Israeli military historian Guy Aviad, a Hamas expert, said Sinwar’s killing was “a significant event… but it’s not the end of the war” in either Gaza or Lebanon.

Hezbollah stronghold, where the official National News Agency reported strikes late Thursday.

The war has drawn in other Iran-aligned armed groups, while Tehran on October 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel. Israel has vowed to retaliate, sparking concern that what is already a war on multiple fronts could morph into an all-out regional conflict.

In northern Gaza’s Jabalia, two hospitals said Israeli air strikes on a school sheltering displaced people killed at least 14 people.

The military reported that it had hit militants.

As Israel has intensified operations in northern Gaza and issued new evacuation orders, UN human rights chief Volker Turk on Thursday warned that any “large-scale forcible transfer” could constitute a war crime.

Some 345,000 Gazans face “catastrophic” levels of hunger this winter after aid deliveries fell, a UN-backed assessment said.

Nearly 100 percent of Gaza’s population now lives in poverty, the UN’s International Labour Organization said, warning that the war’s impact on Gaza “will be felt for generations to come”.

The US will send an advanced anti-missile system — and US troops to operate it — to Israel “to help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1,” the Pentagon said Sunday.

It is not the first time the US has deployed the system, the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery, to the Middle East, Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said in the statement, and the system was also deployed to Israel in 2019 for an exercise. But the deployment of additional US troops to Israel is notable amid the heightened tensions between Israel and Iran, and as the region braces for a potential Israeli attack on Iran that could continue to escalate hostilities.

Approximately 100 US troops are deploying to Israel to operate the THAAD battery, according to a US defense official. It is rare for US troops to deploy inside Israel, but this is a typical number of troops to operate the anti-missile defense system.

The THAAD system is specifically meant for anti-ballistic missile defense and could help Israel better defend itself against a future Iranian attack if Iran decides to respond to any Israeli strike.

The US has been consulting with Israel on how it plans to respond to Iran’s October 1 attack on the country, and US officials have made clear they do not want Israel to target Iranian nuclear sites or oil fields. US President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, their first conversation in almost two months, telling him Israel’s retaliation should be “proportional.”

The US military has significantly increased its presence in the Middle East since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. The US has bolstered its air defenses across the region, deployed additional warships and aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean, Red Sea and Arabian Sea, and recently sent additional troops to Cyprus to help with possible evacuation planning, CNN previously reported.