THIS is the moment a tornado topples a slew of lorries on a motorway in Spain during extreme weather which has killed at least 72 people.
A trucker can be heard shouting “I’ve s**t myself” as he recorded the carnage in front of him on the wind-battered road.
Footage captured the overturned truck on a busy motorway
The moment the lorry tilts on its side before falling over
A nearby car had ‘all its windows shattered’ during the extreme weather
The footage, taken from his dashboard, shows an enormous HGV raised and slammed down on its side in front of him during the brutal winds.
As the heavy rain and stormy weather pelt his windscreen, the video captures a host of other lorries and cars – also lying on their sides.
The driver slows down on the road as he approaches the toppled vehicles, shouting “Look, a hurricane, a hurricane. Look at that.”
He then says: “The lorries in front of me have overturned. The car next to me has had all its windows shattered. I’ve s**t myself.
“This is a hurricane. Look at how everything has been destroyed. This is real bad weather.”
The motorway disaster happened yesterday in Carlet, near Valencia, one of the worst-hit regions in Spain’s catastrophic floods.
In what is the deadliest flood-related natural disaster to hit the country in almost 30 years, entire towns have been ravaged by gushing torrents of muddy water.
The death toll is further expected to rise with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warning of more storms tomorrow.
In an emergency briefing today he said the “devastating event” is not over yet.
The dead are known to include at least four children.
A severe weather warning has since 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.
Over 1,000 soldiers and emergency workers are working around the clock to rescue survivors and pull the dead from the mud.
President of the Valencia region Carlos Mazon said in a chilling statement: “There are bodies and bodies continuing to appear in places we hadn’t been able to access before.”
Officials have said it is “Impossible” to put a definite number on the amount of people killed.
A Spanish soldier and emergency worker evacuate trapped locals after the floods
Cars pile up on a road in Valencia after the heavy rain
Extreme floods have hit Spain
Videos shared by Spanish broadcasters showed floodwater rising into the lower levels of homes and even carrying cars through the street.
In one small area on the outskirts of Valencia city, 40 people are either dead or missing, police sources said.
Chiva, a town near Valencia, was pummelled by more than a year’s worth of rain in just eight hours.
There are also fears the Cirat-Vallat dam – in Castellon, north of Valencia, could burst with officials putting out a warning after they couldn’t open the gates.
The nearby town of Vila-real has activated its emergency protocol, ordering those with houses near the Mijares River to evacuate.
The entire province of Valencia – which has a resident population of nearly 5.5 million – were told they should avoid any travel yesterday evening with emergency mobile warnings.
Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia said they were devastated by the flooding.
They said: “Strength, courage and all the necessary support for all those affected.
“Our warmest message and recognition to local and regional authorities and all emergency services, armed forces and state security forces and corps for the titanic work they have been doing from the very beginning.”
A slew of vehicles lying on the storm-battered motorway
Footage captured another huge lorry overturned on the other side of the motorway
Why was Spain hit by the extreme flooding?
Spain was hit by flash floods after the east of the country was hit by a meteorological phenomena known as a ‘DANA’.
A DANA, or a ‘cold drop’ is technically a system where there is an isolated depression in the atmosphere is 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.