It began with pictures of clouds and lightning. Then came hailstones the size of golf balls. 

Then the rain hit – as much rain as the region usually sees in right months fell in 24 hours.  

With the deluge came floods, and this morning the people of Spain’s Valencia region were coming to terms with what was being called an apocalypse.  

Floods of mud-coloured water tumbled vehicles down streets at high speeds, while pieces of wood swirled in the water with household items. 

Dozens have died after torrents swept away cars, turned village streets into rivers and disrupted rail lines and major roads in the worst natural disaster to hit the nation in recent memory. 

The death toll stands at 72 at the time of writing, but this is certain to climb as the wreckage is cleared from a wide swathe of southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. 

People are stunned. Denis Hlavaty told how he had spent the night trapped in the gas station where he works as the waters rose, and how other people had climbed on the roofs of their cars to survive. 

"It's a river that came through. The doors were torn away and I spent the night there, surrounded by water that was 2 meter deep. I stayed on the top of a shelf, the only one left as the whole gas station had disappeared," he said, still in his mud-caked uniform. 

Authorities reported several missing people late on Tuesday, but the following morning brought the shocking announcement of dozens found dead. 

“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldon, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE. He said several people were still missing in his town. 

“We were trapped like rats. Cars and trash containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to three metres,” he said. 

Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers trapped on the roofs of cars. 

 Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said dozens of towns had been flooded. 

 “For those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Mr Sanchez said in a televised address. 

 “Our priority is to help you. We are putting all the resources necessary so that we can recover from this tragedy.” 

More than 1,000 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were deployed to the devastated areas.  

Rescue services were also rushing eastwards from other parts of Spain. Spain’s central government set up a crisis committee to help co-ordinate rescue efforts. 

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One elderly couple was rescued from the upper story of their house by a military unit using a bulldozer, with three soldiers accompanying them in the huge shovel. 

Television reports showed panicked residents documenting how waters flooded the ground floors of apartments, streams bursting their banks and bridges giving way.  

Dozens of videos shared on social media overnight appeared to show people trapped by the floodwater, with some climbing into trees to avoid being swept away.  

"(The floods) took lots of dogs, took lots horses, they took away everything," said Antonio Carmona, a construction worker and resident of Alora in the southern region of Andalusia. "Another neighbour got trapped in his car and we don't know whether he's ok or not." 

The speed of the disaster overwhelmed people, even after warnings were sent out in the hours before the rain hit.  

local mayor Consuelo Tarazon, who says they received "several" flood alerts before the floodwaters arrived in Horno de Alcedo. 

Ms Tarazon, mayor of Horno de Alcedo, a town just outside Valencia, told BBC Newshour the town was "flooded in minutes." 

"The first alert was about half an hour before the flood started, the second alert when we had already gone up to the upper floors out of fear because the water had already reached one and a half metres, and the third one came this morning," she said. 

Referencing Inferno from Dante's epic narrative poem The Divine Comedy, she said the scene was "a vision of hell". 

"In my 58 years I've never seen anything like this in my life." 

Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years.  Nothing, however, compared to the devastation over the last two days. 

The death toll will likely rise with other regions yet to report victims and search efforts continuing in areas with difficult access. 

The country is still recovering from a severe drought and continues to register record high temperatures in recent years.  

Scientists say increased episodes of extreme weather are likely linked to climate change, with disasters are freak weather rarely seen in Europe now becoming an annual occurrence.  

The devastation in Spain recalls floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021 that saw 230 people killed. 

People "should not be dying from these kinds of forecasted weather events", a climate expert told Sky News. 

Liz Stephens, a professor in climate risks and resilience at the University of Reading, said Spain was among the countries "where they have the resources to do better".  

"While a red weather warning was issued for the region with sufficient time for people to move out of harm's way, a red warning alone doesn't communicate what the impact will be and what people should do," she said. 

"Climate scientists have been warning for years that climate change will lead to more intense rainfall, and the tragic consequences of this event show that we have a long way to go to prepare for this kind of event, and worse, in future." 

The storms in Spain unleashed a freak hailstorm which punched holes in car windows and greenhouses as well as a rarely seen tornado.  

Transport was also impacted. A high-speed train with nearly 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although rail authorities said no-one was hurt. High-speed train service between Valencia city and Madrid was interrupted, as were several commuter lines.  

Valencian regional president Carlos Mazon urged people to stay at home, with travel by road already difficult due to fallen trees and wrecked vehicles.  

Authorities warned that the danger was not over with more rain coming.  

As the waters fell, thick layers of mud-covered streets. “The neighbourhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally smashed up,” Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, said by phone. 

“Everything is a total wreck, everything is ready to be thrown away. The mud is almost 30 centimetres deep.”  

Outside Mr Viena’s bar, people were venturing out to see what they could salvage. Cars were piled up and the streets were filled with clumps of water-logged branches.  

Located south of Barcelona down the Mediterranean coast, Valencia is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus orchards, and as the home of Spain’s paella rice dish.  

Like some other areas of Spain, Valencia has gorges and small riverbeds that spend much of the year completely dry but quickly fill with water when it rains. Many of them pass through populated areas. 

The rain had subsided in Valencia by late Wednesday morning. But more storms were forecast through Thursday, according to Spain’s national weather service.