Deadly floods in Spain prompted the government to send 10,000 soldiers and police to Valencia as the death toll rose to more than 200.

Spain is sending 5,000 soldiers and another 5,000 police to the eastern region of Valencia after floods killed more than 200 people this week, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on Saturday.

So far, 205 bodies have been found – 202 in Valencia, two in neighboring Castilla La Mancha and one in Andalusia, in the south – in Spain's deadliest natural disaster.

Rescuers were still searching for bodies in trapped cars and damaged buildings on Saturday, four days after floods ravaged eastern Spain. An unknown number of people are still missing.

Thousands of volunteers are helping to clear the thick mud that has covered everything from streets, homes and businesses in the worst affected cities.

Currently, there are about 2,000 soldiers involved in the emergency work, and about 2,500 soldiers of the Civil Guard – who worked to rescue 4,500 during the floods – and 1,800 national police.

Spain has been dealing with a drought that lasted almost two years, making this flood worse because the dry land was too dry to absorb the rain. In August 1996, floods swept away a camp on the Gallego River in Biescas, in the northeast, killing 87 people.

Before and after satellite images of the city of Valencia showed the extent of the disaster, showing the transformation of the great Mediterranean city into a place full of muddy water. The V-33 highway was completely covered in a thick brown layer of mud.

“The situation is unbelievable, it is a disaster and there is very little help,” he said Emilio Cuartero, a resident of Masanasa, on the outskirts of Valencia. “We need machines, cranes, to make the places accessible. We need a lot of help, and bread and water.”