Spanish PM visits flood-hit areas as death toll rises to six

MADRID: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday visited the country's flood-stricken southeastern regions as the death toll rose to six and train and air services were disrupted for a third day.

Some of the heaviest daily rainfall on record has inundated areas in the regions since Wednesday, causing chaos on the roads, cutting public transport and prompting rivers to burst their banks.

Flash floods swept away cars and swamped homes and fields in the regions of Valencia, Murcia and eastern Andalusia. The latest fatality was a middle-aged man whose body was found by police in a field at a hamlet near the city of Orihuela in Valencia, a spokeswoman for the central government´s office in the region said, without giving details.

Five people died in separate accidents in the previous two days as they tried to cross flooded roads in cars, including a man whose vehicle got stuck in a tunnel on Friday in the centre of the coastal city of Almeria.

After observing the damage from a helicopter flying over the city of Orihuela in the region of Valencia, Sanchez visited a command centre for emergency operations.

Later he offered his condolences to the families of the dead and said the government would do everything it could to help the survivors.

"All those who have been affected need to know that the Spanish government will help so that at least they can repair many of the material damages caused by this extraordinary meteorological phenomenon," he told reporters as he arrived in Murcia. The prime minister said water levels need to lower before the government can make an estimate of the total cost of the damage.