Spain is sending in an additional 5,000 troops to help with relief efforts after nightmarish flash floods have left at least 211 dead in the eastern, southern and central regions of the country.

The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced the support Saturday, adding to what has already been the country’s largest peacetime military deployment — for what he called the “terrible tragedy” that hit the Valencia region the hardest this week, The Guardian reported.

“There are still dozens of people looking for their loved ones and hundreds of households mourning the loss of a relative, a friend or a neighbour,” Sanchez said in an address broadcast Saturday morning. “I want to express our deepest love to them and assure them that the government of Spain and the entire state, at all its different administrative levels, is with all of them.”

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced Saturday that he’s sending 5,000 more troops into flood-devastated Valencia and surrounding regions. AP

Two women walk through mud and water after floods in Valencia on Nov. 2, 2024. AP

The Spanish Armed Forces have rescued 4,607 people so far, Spain’s Minister of Territorial Policies Ángel Víctor Torres Pérez said on Friday, according to CNN.

Sanchez said the almost apocalyptic rainfall and flash flooding was “the worst natural disaster in our country’s recent history” and the second deadliest European floods of the century.

A two-day deluge transformed dozens of Spanish streets into roaring rivers with cars piled up like Matchbox toys across the eastern coast of Spain. 

Sanchez also said that while he’d ordered “the largest deployment of armed forces and police personnel that’s ever been seen in our country during peacetime,” some of the rescuers were having trouble reaching flooded houses and isolated villages.

Volunteers and residents walk in the mud four days after flash floods swept away everything in their path in Paiporta, on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain. AP

Civil Guard officers search for survivors in cars trapped under the foundations of a building in Paiporta on Nov. 2, 2024. Biel Alino/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

People sweep water from a flooded building in Manasa on Nov. 2, 2024. Kai Forsterling/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

About 5,000 more national police and civil guard officers would be sent to the region, the prime minister said, taking total police numbers to 10,000, according to the outlet.

Forensic specialists and mobile morgues are on site to identify flood victims, he added.

“The situation we’re experiencing is tragic and dramatic,” Sanchez said. “I’m aware that the response we’re mounting isn’t enough. I know that.. I know we have to do better and give it our all.”