In images seen around the world, furious crowds in the ravaged eastern town of Paiporta on Sunday hurled objects and insults at visiting King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

Sanchez and the Valencia region's leader Carlos Mazon were hastily evacuated. The mud-stained royals braved the soaring tensions to speak with victims but cancelled a visit to another destroyed town.

With the death toll at 217, many people missing and entire towns lying under a sea of mud, "the people's anger is more than understandable", said Pablo Simon, a political scientist at Madrid's Carlos III University.

"The authorities should not have shown up there at that moment. The people are furious because there is a perception of an inability of the state to solve their problems," he told AFP.

Citizens were feeling an "enormous confusion" at the "erratic" handling of the disaster, from the late warnings to the response following the floods, Simon added.

Regions enjoy much autonomy in Spain's highly decentralised state, but that can lead to confusion in emergencies as they must request measures such as deploying troops.

Thousands of volunteers have taken it upon themselves to supply food, water, health products and cleaning assistance where soldiers, police officers, firefighters and civil guards have been absent.

For Paloma Roman, a political scientist at Madrid's Complutense University, the lack of coordination between the national and regional authorities means "not everywhere is being reached when the people need it", which "increases discontent".

- 'Blame game' -

The polarisation of Spanish politics in recent years compounds the problem, with the conservative-ruled eastern Valencia region and the left-wing national government sharing responsibility for crisis management.

There is "a blame game between the different authorities" over who should have intervened, fuelling the popular "explosion", said Simon.

The regional and national governments have traded blame over the delays in alerting the population as torrential rains lashed the country last week.

The telephone warnings sent Tuesday by the Valencia region only arrived after 8:00 pm (1900 GMT), well after the state weather service issued a red alert in the morning.

Mazon blamed a different state service for the delay on Monday, saying it deactivated the water alert three times.

Some observers believe Paiporta's fury was directed at the politicians rather than the royals.

"The king calms Paiporta and Sanchez slips away," the pro-monarchy newspaper ABC wrote on Monday. Conservative daily El Mundo said the monarchs took the anger aimed at Sanchez and Mazon.

As Felipe and Letizia have an essentially "symbolic" role, they can "place themselves above the political skirmish", said Simon.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska blamed "marginal groups" for instigating the violence, with Spanish media reporting far-right agitators were involved.

But Simon warned the chaos should not distract from the stricken victims' genuine anger.

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CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP