Watch nerve-racking moment terrified Spanish woman and her beloved dog are airlifted from deadly floodwater
THIS is the dramatic moment a woman and her pet dog are airlifted from the deadly floodwater in Spain.
Nerve-racking footage shows crews rescuing the pair from the neck-high floods sweeping several southern and eastern Spanish towns.
The floodwaters have turned the country’s cities and countryside unrecognisable, with fast-flowing rivers destroying cars and other objects in their paths.
The woman from Utiel, near Valencia, was seen holding her pooch and a backpack under her flooded home’s roof on Tuesday.
A rescuer meanwhile prepared her for the rescue operation by tying safety equipment around her.
They venture out into the heavy rainfall, with the woman struggling to swim as her terrified dog clung onto her shoulders.
But the lady and her pet are then safely airlifted into a helicopter by emergency workers, as the ruthless floodwater flows below them.
Carlos Mazon, the regional leader of Valencia, one of Spain‘s most significant agricultural districts, said that some people remained trapped in inaccessible areas.
He said: “If [emergency services] have not arrived, it’s not due to a lack of means or predisposition, but a problem of access.”
Mr Mazon added that reaching certain areas was “absolutely impossible”.
He previously said in a chilling statement: “There are bodies and bodies continuing to appear in places we hadn’t been able to access before.”
It comes as the horrifying moment another woman was swept away in the deadly flash floods was captured on camera.
The surging water swept her off her feet as she desperately tried to hold on to anything in her path.
The woman, who has not been identified, could be seen screaming and trying to swim as helpless onlookers made desperate attempts to grab her hand from nearby balconies.
At one moment she successfully held onto a lamppost but the torrent quickly ripped her away sending her further down the street.
It is not known if she has survived.
Heartbreaking footage also showed a flooded retirement home in Valencia, with senior residents scrambling for balance in the muddy water.
Some 115 people were rescued from the care home in Paiporta, a town in Valencia that was hit particularly hard by the floods.
Tragically five were killed and one reported missing from the ruined building on Wednesday.
Mayor of the town, Maribel Albalat, said: “The currents were so quick – and we called the emergency services who started rescuing some people who had water up to their neck.”
Describing it as “a total catastrophe”, she added that the death toll is expected to rise: “The victims are going to be in their dozens.
“There were a lot of people in their homes which in Paiporta are single-storey and water has entered them and they haven’t been able to get out.”
She described “a lot of people who went to move their cars and never came back”.
Rescuers are desperately trying to find survivors and bodies in the mud after torrential downpours turned roads into rapids and trapped people inside their homes and cars.
Heavy floods have swept across Spain after severe storms struck the region on Tuesday.
Authorities confirmed on Wednesday morning that at least 72 people have been killed and more storms are expected on Thursday.
Over 1,000 soldiers have been deployed to the affected areas with pictures showing them helping to rescue stranded residents.
The flooding began at lunchtime on Tuesday, wreaking havoc from the provinces of Malaga in the south to Valencia in the east.
It is the worst flood-related natural disaster to hit Spain in almost 30 years – after flooding in 1996 killed 87.
A severe weather warning has been issued in Catalonia, northern Spain, marking a move away from the hard-hit southern and eastern regions.
Meteocat, the Catalan weather service, has warned of hail that could be as big as two centimetres and possible tornadoes or waterspouts.
Their warning sits at a level six – the highest possible.
A new map released by Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET appeared to show which regions suffered the heaviest blows in last night’s storms.
Why was Spain hit by flooding?
Spain was hit by flash floods after the east of the country was hit by a meteorological phenomenon known as a ‘DANA’.
A DANA, or a ‘cold drop’ is technically a system where there is an isolated depression in the atmosphere at high levels.
In layman’s terms, more warm and moist Mediterranean air than usual was sucked high into the atmosphere after a cold system hit the country from the south.
The easterly wind then pushed all those clouds and rain into eastern Spain.
Three to four months of rain fell in some places over the space of 24 hours.
The DANA system hit southern Spain as it arrived from Morocco yesterday and is now expected to head west over southern Portugal.