A Farnham man who saw first-hand the aftermath of an “apocalyptic flood” in Spain believes the disaster should be a “wake-up” call to the town and government.

Peter Goodman doesn’t believe the risk is being taken seriously after seeing how flash flooding and torrential rain decimated Valencia.

The former Electric Cycle Café owner had no idea of the horror unfolding on the other side of the L’Albufera lagoon as he camped on a spit next to the Mediterranean that had little rainfall and no flooding.

Loss of power, phone signal and emergency text messages followed, but what he saw the next day after cycling into the suburb of Aldaia left him dumbfounded.

“I consider myself very lucky,” said Peter.

“The next morning I started cycling into a nearby village and a policeman started screaming at me. I suspect there may have been bodies.

“You could see that trees had been underwater and it was like Armageddon, with articulated lorries that had just been pushed over, but it got more and more extreme.

“There must have been thousands of cars destroyed and the force of the water just rammed them together.”

Mr Goodman wonders if there are parallels to be drawn as radio interviews suggest the Valencian government failed to heed warnings. Farnham’s flood defences were built 50 years ago after a major flood in 1968 but with weather events becoming more extreme, Mr Goodman believes the Valencia event should be a “wake up call”.

He said: “I found myself thinking about Farnham because what happened in Valencia could happen here.

“We’re in the bottom of a valley and we could get a huge tsunami come through.

“I don’t think it’s being taken that seriously by councillors.

“People tend to think this only happens in faraway places and not in Britain but that’s a huge naivety.”