Hundreds of residents of a Valencia suburb particularly badly hit by last week's deadly floods protested on Sunday during a visit by Spanish King Felipe, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, with some throwing mud at them.

Chanting "Murderers, murderers!", they vented their anger and frustrations over what has been widely perceived by local residents as tardy alerts from the authorities about the dangers of Tuesday's flooding and a late response by the emergency services when disaster struck.

"It was known and nobody did anything to avoid it," a young man told the king, who insisted on staying to talk to the people despite the turmoil, while the prime minister had quickly withdrawn.

Spain is a parliamentary monarchy where the king is head of state. At one point in the visit to the stricken suburb of Paiporta, Felipe held a man who was crying on his shoulder.

Online footage showed his wife Letizia crying as she hugged some residents. Her hair and face had traces of mud and one of her bodyguards had blood on his face, apparently from a hurled object.

Bodyguards had opened umbrellas to try to protect the royals.