A 13-year-old Bermudian tennis player at an academy in Spain pitched in to help after massive floods devastated a nearby village and killed at least 12 people.

Daniel Phillips is training to be a professional at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Manacor in Majorca, which is just seven miles from Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, which was devastated by “biblical” floods last Tuesday.

Pupils at the school joined the relief effort and helped distribute food, drinks and clothes in the affected area.

The academy, owned by Manacor-born tennis superstar Rafael Nadal, was also used as an emergency shelter for people forced out of their homes by the floods.

Daniel, a former Somerset Primary pupil and home schooler, told The Royal Gazette: “There were lightning strikes where we were at the academy and torrential rain — the weather was tremendous.

“The flood was in Sant Llorenc but we didn’t know people had died at that point. Then we heard that something big had happened. Just knowing that people died made me really think.”

Daniel and fellow pupils also helped with a beach clean-up in the aftermath of the disaster.

The flood happened after a river around the village burst its banks and sent water pouring through the streets of the village. Daniel said: “People in the academy were crying. We heard a story of a mother who threw her daughter out of her car to try to save her. The daughter survived, but the mother died and her sons are still missing.”

The regional government said that hundreds of emergency services personnel, including the Spanish army, were deployed to the scene. Pupils and staff at the school held a minute’s silence to mark the disaster. He added the experience had made him reflect on how fortunate he was. Daniel said: “It made me feel that I need to live my life to the full and not take anything for granted. It really made me think.”

The tennis prodigy, who started playing aged just 3 and is the island’s top player in his age group, enrolled in the Nadal school in 2016.