‘We heard neighbours scream before they died’, Valencia floods survival says 

The floods, which started last Monday, have swept through the city and upended nearly everything in sight, leaving homes and businesses destroyed and streets caked in a thick layer of mud.

Jerome Torres, 49, said that a week on from the floods beginning, the Spanish city looked like something out of an ‘apocalyptic’ horror film.

Mr Torres, who was trapped in his fourth-floor flat in the town of Paiporta with his partner Pablo, told of feeling terrified that their lives would end that day.

He said: ‘The water was reaching horrendous levels and we were hearing neighbours that were trapped in their ground floor houses starting to shout but it was impossible to go outside because of the strength of the water.

‘We could hear people shouting that were being taken by this urban river in our streets.

‘The neighbours on higher floors were throwing ropes and bedding to try to help people so that they could catch something and try to get out of the water.’

Though three people on Jerome’s street were killed by the floods, he said that a 90-year-old neighbour miraculously survived by standing on her furniture as water rushed into her home.

But she was trapped for more than four hours before the water began to subside and her neighbours could carry her to safety.

Mr Torres told the Sun: ‘In front of her house, there was a mound of mud, a meter and a half high.

‘It was very slippery and very difficult to navigate but they managed to do it. It took about 40 minutes to get her out.’

He and his partner were able to leave the flat the following morning, and stayed at his aunt’s house to recover.

But the scene laid before that was one of destruction and devastation.

He said: ‘The day that we came back and saw the devastation, it was completely unrecognisable.

‘It felt like an American Hollywood film. It was apocalyptic.’