Caked in mud from head to toe, a resident of Alfafar on Friday tried to clear a massive puddle of sludge away from his front door with only a plank of wood for a broom.

At times the Sisyphean task appeared to overwhelm him, and he stood up to survey a neighbourhood turned upside down by the deadliest flash floods in Europe for 50 years.

Cars lay piled on top of each other. Shattered windows and splintered doors were strewn on the ground. And everywhere, covering everything, was a thick, brown layer of mud.

On Friday, helpless residents of this ruined suburb of Valencia turned their fury at the lack of assistance from the government and army. With road-access limited by the devastation, they had been cut off from most of the rescue efforts spreading out across the east coast.

“They have done absolutely nothing. For the first 48 hours all we saw were police helicopters overhead,” said Laura Prieto, 42.

By Friday morning, military pumping trucks had arrived to flush water, cars and corpses out of underground car parks. But many areas of the town remained inaccessible to rescuers, including the nearby neighbourhood of Albal.