Emergency responders are searching for bodies inside stranded cars and buildings following deadly flash floods in Spain that have killed at least 158 people.
Scenes of destruction have been left in the wake of the powerful floodwaters which hit the east of the country late on Tuesday and early Wednesday, marking Spain‘s worst natural disaster this century.
Cars have been piled high on top of each other, homes and businesses have been swept away, trees have been uprooted, and roads and bridges have been left unrecognisable.
At least 92 people have died in the worst-hit region of Valencia, while deaths were also reported in Castilla La Mancha and southern Andalusia.
An unknown number of people remain missing.
“Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,” Spain’s transport minister Oscar Puente said.
In the Valencian district of La Torre, nine dead bodies were discovered inside a garage – with a local police officer among the victims.
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Man pulled from deadly floods
Luis Sanchez, a welder, said he saved several people from floodwaters rushing through the V-31 motorway south of Valencia city.
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“I saw bodies floating past. I called out but nothing,” Mr Sanchez said.
“The firefighters took the elderly first, when they could get in. I am from nearby so I tried to help and rescue people. People were crying all over, they were trapped.”
Satellite images from NASA show how severe flooding has impacted Valencia and its surrounding towns.
The images, captured on 30 October, show large areas to the south of the city covered in floodwater.
The Turia river, which runs through the city, can be seen at a much higher level.
The Pobles del Sud, a large lake nearby, overflowed. Much of the area surrounding the lake was covered in floodwater.
The worst of the destruction was concentrated in Paiporta, a municipality next to Valencia city, where 62 people have been reported dead.
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Spanish town ‘worst-hit’ by floods
Mayor Maribel Albalat told national broadcaster RTVE: “We found a lot of elderly people in the town centre. There were also a lot of people who came to get their cars out of their garages… it was a real trap.”
What has caused the devastation?
The flooding events in Spain have been hard to witness. But the rainfall there could never have been anything but devastating.
Chiva, located just to the west of Valencia, received 491mm of rain in an eight-hour window.
Some 100-200mm fell in surrounding areas with the accumulation of running water producing apocalyptic scenes.
In addition there have been over 20,000 lightning strikes.
Whilst the rainfall totals are astounding in themselves, this part of the world is simply not accustomed to huge quantities of water falling from the sky.
In an average year, Spain would expect somewhere between 50 and 100 mm of rain throughout the entire month of October but Valencia and Andalusia would expect far less – just 60–70mm.
So how did this happen? It’s attributable to a DANA, a “depresion aislada en niveles altos” or a “cut-off low”.
This is a low pressure system which becomes slow moving or stationary, blocked by high pressure elsewhere, which can only keep shedding its rain over the same area for long periods of time.
These systems are not that unusual. They occur when cool air from the north is drawn across the Mediterranean in late summer and autumn when the waters are war. The temperature differential enhances storms and rainfall totals.
But whilst not uncommon, this one was certainly extreme.
And it hasn’t gone yet. This same system has continued to bring further heavy rain and thunderstorms today, but it has now moved a little further north and east, heading toward the French border and currently remaining to the west of Barcelona.
The rain and thunderstorms are likely to continue for a few days yet with the Tarragona and Castellon regions still under an amber warning while a yellow warning remains in force for both eastern and western Spain.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday morning that Valencia had been declared a disaster zone and that the priority was to find victims and missing people.
He also urged those affected to stay at home as more torrential rain was forecast.
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“The most important thing is that I know Spanish people are aware that this phenomenon has not finished,” he said.
Sky News’ Europe correspondent Adam Parsons, reporting from Valencia, said the devastation suffered in the region is “enormous”.
“What we’re witnessing now are the locals here who are waking up and seeing what’s happened to their town and what has happened is something almost apocalyptic,” he said.
A nearby shop was left “absolutely wrecked” and looked like a “bomb has gone off in there”, he added.
Three days of mourning has been declared in Spain, beginning on Thursday.
Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the most powerful flash flood event in recent memory, and scientists have linked its strength to climate change.
Sir Keir Starmer has condemned Russia’s Christmas Day bombardment of Ukraine, saying the hail of missiles and drones was “bloody and brutal”.
The prime minister lamented that there was “no respite even at Christmas” for Ukrainians, who spent the morning sheltering in metro stations as bombs rained down on their cities.
Russia’s defence ministry said it carried out a “massive strike” on energy facilities that it claimed supported Kyiv’s military.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also condemned the attack, saying Russia was seeking to plunge his people into darkness.
“Putin deliberately chose Christmas,” he said on Wednesday. “What could be more inhumane?”
In the east, Kremlin forces claim to have captured the settlement of Vidrodzhennia as they continue to make territorial gains.
‘Christmas gift to Ukraine’
Regions across the country reported missile and drone strikes as Ukrainians spend another holiday season facing attacks on their power infrastructure.
Kyiv’s military said it downed 59 Russian missiles and 54 drones, but others made it through their air defences.
Strikes in Kharkiv wounded six people and left half a million in the region without heating, as temperatures hovered just a few degrees above zero.
“Kharkiv is under massive missile fire. A series of explosions rang out in the city and there are still ballistic missiles flying in the direction of the city. Stay in safe places,” Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
In the capital, residents faced blackouts while in Dnipro region one person was killed.
Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysa said the Russian army is trying to destroy the region’s power system.
Ukrainians, marking their second Christmas since changing to celebrate on the same day as the West, sheltered in underground metro stations as the deadly salvo of missiles soared towards them.
“Russia’s Christmas gift to Ukraine: more than 70 missiles and 100 drones,” US ambassador Bridget Brink said. “For the third holiday season, Russia weaponises winter.”
In the east, Ukrainian soldiers celebrated Christmas by candlelight as they ate together near the frontline.
Fighting continues to be tough in Donbas, as Russian forces push forward and make steady gains.
On Wednesday, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken the settlement of Vidrodzhennia.
Across the border, in Russia’s Kursk region, four people were killed and five injured in the town of Lgov after Ukrainian shelling, the region’s acting governor said.
“A five-storey residential building, two single-storey residential buildings and a single-storey beauty salon were seriously damaged,” Alexander Khinshtein wrote on Telegram.
Pope calls for peace talks
In the Vatican, Pope Francis mentioned the war in Ukraine directly during his Christmas Day message, calling for “the boldness needed to open the door to negotiation”.
Speaking to thousands of people from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, he said: “May the sound of arms be silenced in war-torn Ukraine!”
He also called for “gestures of dialogue and encounter, in order to achieve a just and lasting peace”.
Azerbaijan Airlines said the aircraft had been forced to make an emergency landing at Aktau airport.
Russia’s aviation watchdog said in a statement that preliminary information suggested the pilot had decided to make an emergency landing after a bird strike.
Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of Vladimir Putin and leader of Chechnya, expressed his condolences and said those being treated in hospital were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray for their rapid recovery.
The sense of hollowness of the Church of the Nativity is deeper than absent tourists.
The chants and prayers are pain-stricken and desperate.
Down in the manger by the enshrined spot where baby Jesus was said to be born, a priest solemnly swings incense into the corners.
There is no beautifully-lit tree in the square outside for the second year in a row. Even in their homes, the Palestinian Christian community in Bethlehem is struggling to celebrate.
The empty spaces and lack of tourism are the shadow of 14 months of war in Gaza and a daily reminder of the ongoing devastation.
And around their family homes, Israeli settlements in the West Bank – illegal under international law – are inching closer.
‘Our country is shrinking’
“Normally we spend Christmas in Bethlehem and Jerusalem but this year there are no celebrations because of what is happening with the war. It is not nice to celebrate while people are dying,” says Alice Kisiya.
Alice is from Beit Jala, Bethlehem. For five years, her family have waged legal battles with settlers over their generational home.
“Each Christmas we had demolition because each time they come and demolish. Last year, we were celebrating Christmas there and they came and demolished our small tent,” says Alice.
She and her family are waiting for a Supreme Court ruling in January on whether they can return.
“Our country is shrinking. As Palestinian Christians, we cannot really have our freedom to move freely and it’s getting worse.”
Her words resonate as we drive along the West Bank wall on the edges of Bethlehem.
A stark reminder of the political divide that is tearing through the Holy Land.
‘It seems destiny of Holy Land is to stay divided’
On the other side of the wall from the sacred site where Jesus was born is where he was crucified in Jerusalem.
We hear that the procession of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is soon arriving through a checkpoint inside the wall into Bethlehem to the Church of Nativity.
A crowd of eager Catholics are waiting for him by Rachel’s Tomb, a sacred site for Orthodox Jews.
School children visiting the tomb are ushered off the street by elders aware of the arriving procession.
They start to sing defiantly as older students are forcefully removed from the road by Israeli police.
There is a hushed sense of anticipation and awe from those waiting for Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa to arrive from the Church of Holy Sepulchre – where Jesus was crucified – to the Church of the Nativity, where he was born in refuge.
“This is an important more than a thousand-year-old tradition,” says Tony Marcos, Dean of the Catholic Action Foundation.
As a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, Tony is not permitted to make the procession between the two holy sites.
“It seems the destiny of this Holy Land is to stay divided and these are difficult times we are living in,” he adds.
“Christmas is the season of love and the season of hope. There is big pain and there is instability – a lot of sacrifices and a lot of blood,” he says.
‘We want next year to be full of light’
The anxiety seems to dissipate as Cardinal Pizzaballa arrives.
He shakes hands with a queue of people eager to get close to the leader of the Church they cannot visit.
“This Christmas, we want people not to lose hope. It is possible to break down the hatred, the division, the contempt and the lack of justice and dignity we are experiencing here,” says Cardinal Pizzaballa.
“The prayer is to raise our gaze and to look forward, not backwards. We want the next year to be full of light – lighted in the darkness.”