Valencia’s president accepted a sustainable tourism award and posed for pictures on Tuesday despite a series of warnings of catastrophic flooding.

Carlos Mazón is scrambling to save his political career after his regional government failed to send out emergency warnings until 12 hours after Spain’s meteorological agency issued its first red alert.

Mr Mazón ordered the swelling number of volunteers wanting to help with the clean-up operation to return to their homes on Friday.

The anger is palpable and trade unions have already called on Mr Mazón to resign, as Valencia opened a temporary morgue to deal with the dead.

Valencia resident Hector Bolivar, 65, questioned why a text message alert was only sent out at 8pm when the heavy rain had begun several hours earlier.