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Weather warnings are in force across many parts of Spain as new storms approach following devastating floods that have claimed at least 158 ​​lives – making it the country’s worst natural disaster in living memory.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has warned that the devastation caused by flash floods is “not over yet” as he declared Valencia a “disaster area” on Thursday. He urged residents to stay in their homes, saying: “Right now the most important thing is to protect as many lives as possible.”

Cities including Valencia and Malaga were flooded this week after almost a year’s worth of rain – nearly half a meter – fell in just eight hours in some areas, leaving residents “trapped like rats” in homes and cars, as described by a desperate local mayor remembers the chaos.

As volunteers carry out a massive clean-up operation after floods swept away bridges and left cars and other debris piled up on mud-filled streets, Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente said rescuers were faced with the task of recovering bodies from which it was assumed that they were still in the water. trapped in vehicles.

But more extreme weather is forecast, prompting further weather warnings in large parts of the country on Thursday.

Calm weather returned in the worst-hit areas around the city of Valencia, but state weather agency AEMET issued its highest alert level for the province of Castellon, warning of “very strong storms” and urging people to avoid the area.

Further north in the Catalonia region, an orange warning was issued for the city of Tarragona, which is just 80 kilometers southwest of Barcelona.

Smaller warnings of heavy rainfall were also issued along much of the country’s western border with Spain, from the southern coast to close to Avila in the north.

These warnings, of up to 60mm of rain in 12 hours, cover an area of ​​about 240 kilometers from east to west, including the popular tourist destinations of Seville and Cadiz.

“This storm front is still with us,” Sanchez said Thursday. “Stay at home and follow the official recommendation and you will help save lives.”

As search and rescue efforts continued, the death toll from the flooding continued to rise on Thursday, from 95 to 158. Of those, 155 were reported in the Valencia region. Two fatalities were reported in the neighboring region of Castilla-La Mancha and one in southern Andalusia.

Read our live blog about the floods for the latest updates

The greatest pain was concentrated in Paiporta, a community of about 25,000 people next to the city of Valencia, where Mayor Maribel Albalat said on Thursday that 62 people had died.

While most suffering was inflicted on municipalities near the city of Valencia, the storms unleashed their fury across large parts of the southern and eastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula.

Homes were left without water as far south as Malaga in Andalusia, where a high-speed train derailed on Tuesday evening. None of the nearly 300 passengers were injured.

Greenhouses and farms across southern Spain were also destroyed by heavy rains and flooding. The storms caused a bizarre tornado in Valencia and a hail storm that punched holes in cars in Andalusia.

The town of Chiva, west of Valencia province, recorded 491mm of rain in just eight hours – more than in the past 20 months, according to the Spanish weather service.

Spain’s Mediterranean coast is used to autumn storms that can cause flooding, but this was the most powerful flash flood in recent history. Scientists link it to climate change, which is also responsible for increasing temperatures and droughts in Spain and the warming of the Mediterranean Sea.

Man-made climate change has doubled the chance of a storm like this week’s deluge in Valencia, according to a rapid partial analysis by World Weather Attribution, made up of dozens of international scientists who study the role of global warming in extreme weather.