Mr Mazón is also under fire for saying at 1pm on Tuesday, hours before the worst of the downpour, that the storm front would “lose strength” towards the evening.

Spain’s national weather agency had announced on Sunday, two days before the disaster, that there was a 70 percent chance of heavy rain ahead. It then issued the highest red alert as early as 7.30am on Tuesday.

The mayor of Alfafar, a town just south of the city of Valencia, also criticized Valencian authorities for their immediate response to the crisis.

“They forgot about us. We haven’t seen a fire truck for days; We did not see the military emergency unit or the Guardía Civil,” said Juan Ramón Adsuara, adding that people were “living with corpses in their homes.”

“We’re organizing, but we’re running out of everything.”