This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

At least 10 people, including two Britons, have been killed after torrential rain caused flash flooding on the Spanish island of Mallorca.

The British citizens, thought to have been a couple, were reported to have drowned in a taxi as flood water engulfed the town of Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, about 40 miles east of the capital, Palma, on Tuesday evening. Their deaths were confirmed by the Foreign Office on Wednesday afternoon.

“We are supporting the family of two British people following their deaths in Spain, and will do all we can to assist them at this deeply difficult time,” said an FCO spokeswoman. “Our staff remain in contact with the Spanish authorities who are responsible for responding to the floods, and are ready to assist any other British people who require our help.”

A spokeswoman for the Balearic islands’ emergency services said a Dutch woman had also died in the flooding. Other victims were found in Artà and the coastal town of S’illot.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police officers search for survivors on a beach in S’illot. Photograph: Cati Cladera/EPA

Local emergency services, whose rescue efforts were supported by specialist military and police units, said 10 people had been killed in the floods. By late afternoon on Wednesday, one child was still missing.

The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, flew to the island to offer support to the emergency services, and announced that Sant Llorenç would be declared a disaster zone. He offered his condolences to the victims’ families and said the area “can count on the government’s support in getting back to normal as soon as possible”.

Spanish weather forecasters said 20cm (8in) of rain fell in four hours.

“It all happened in less than 10 minutes,” an unidentified witness with wet clothes and a blanket over his shoulders told the public broadcaster TVE. “We had to swim to try to survive.”

Videos showed cars being washed away in fast-moving, muddy water more than a metre deep. Footage of the aftermath in Sant Llorenç showed dozens of damaged and upturned vehicles, many of them covered in debris.

Officials said more than 600 rescuers and medical staff were at work and that emergency relief centres had been set up in sports halls.

The tennis player Rafael Nadal, who is from Mallorca, offered to open up his sports centre and tennis academy to people displaced by the floods. “Our most sincere condolences to the loved ones of the victims of the serious floods in Sant Llorenç,” he wrote on Instagram.

IB3 Notícies (@IB3noticies) #InundacionsIB3 Primeres imatges aèries de la catàstrofe de #Mallorca. Aquesta és la zona afectada del Llevant: https://t.co/1fJyNvCwqb pic.twitter.com/9Q1lolHx8I

On Wednesday, Spain’s meteorological office, Aemet, issued orange alerts for heavy rain in three areas: the Balearic islands, parts of Catalonia, and Málaga. The UK Foreign Office warned of “significant disruption and some road closures”, in updated travel advice for Mallorca.

Aerial footage of the aftermath showed that a road bridge near Palma had been swept away in the floods. Authorities said 11 roads were blocked.

The emergency services department posted messages on Twitter in Spanish, Catalan, English and German, urging people to call 112 and let authorities know if they were stranded.

Specialist rescue units from the Spanish army set off on a boat from Valencia, while two helicopters carrying three search dogs were also dispatched.