Neighbours, friends, relatives and strangers worked alongside each other in the mud. People brought water and food, shovels and sweeping brushes, as they came to the aid of communities in Valencia, the region in eastern Spain that has been devastated by recent flooding.
At least 211 people are known to have died in the worst floods to hit Spain and Europe in decades, but the death toll is rising.
Experts estimate that about a year of rain fell in eight hours on Tuesday. Water rapidly rose, running into ground-floor apartments and houses, killing people who found themselves trapped there. Others died in their cars when they tried to flee.
In a televised statement, prime minister Pedro Sánchez said the government was sending 5,000 more army troops to help with the searches and clean-up in addition to 2,500 soldiers already deployed.
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The prime minister also said 5,000 more national police and civil guard officers would be sent to the region, taking total police numbers to 10,000.
“It is the biggest operation by the armed forces in Spain in peacetime,” Mr Sanchez said. “The government is going to mobilise all the resources necessary as long as they are needed.”
Rescuers were still searching for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings on Saturday, four days after the monstrous flash floods that swept away everything in their path in the east of the country. An unknown number of people remain missing.
Thousands of volunteers are helping to clean up the thick mud that is covering everything in streets, houses and businesses in the hardest-hit towns.
Hopes of finding survivors were boosted when rescuers found a woman alive after three days trapped in a car park in Montcada, Valencia. Residents burst into applause when civil protection chief Martin Perez announced the news.
In Paiporta, a small town just outside Valencia city where at least 45 were reportedly killed in the floods, the presence of emergency services and the army had remained light on Friday. In their absence, ordinary people worked in groups to push the thick muddy water from homes and roads down drains in the streets.
Volunteers set up tables to hand out donated clothes, bottles of water, milk and food to others in need. Some people walked for hours to drop off donations.
“The first day, on Wednesday morning, I saw the bodies of two people I knew,” said Kevin Asensi, who lives in nearby La Torre, which was also badly hit by the flooding. Many people had died inside their homes, some whose bodies had likely not yet been found, he said. “Only the neighbours are helping, not the government ... I don’t know why the army is not here, we need the soldiers,” he said.
Another local man, Luiz Migel, said he found it difficult to put into words what he was feeling: “I lost everything, my house, my business.”
Valencia city centre was untouched by the floods and on Friday had an uneasy sense of normality about it. Tourists sat out eating tapas and drinking wine, while only a few kilometres away people picked through the wreckage of their homes.
However, thousands of people came from the city and elsewhere to help those in the areas worst hit by the floods. Travelling by foot, they brought supplies of food and water and handed out sandwiches to people working to clear mud from the roads. Others carried shovels to help the clean-up effort, which will take weeks.
“We have not been affected, so we are just trying to help,” said Belen Gomez (23), from Valencia, as she walked across a bridge from the city to La Torre.
Another woman, Lide Crespo, had gone door-to-door with a friend in Paiporta, before soon finding someone who was trying to clear muck and water from a home. “Everyone needs help, we came here and we started helping,” she said. – Additional reporting from wires
Why did Spain's flash flood warning come so late?
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