Spanish death toll rises to 211 from cataclysmic flooding

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The death toll from catastrophic flooding in southern and eastern Spain rose to 211 as an unknown number of people remained missing and the government dispatched 10,000 more soldiers and police officers to the rescue effort.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said on Saturday that the flooding was almost certainly the worst in Europe this century as he announced the new toll and acknowledged “severe shortages” in the disaster zone and “municipalities buried in mud”.

The authorities continued to remove bodies from towns close to the city of Valencia with some effort focused on accessing vehicles piled up in underground car parks and tunnels that had been submerged in flood water in a matter of minutes.

Portuguese firefighters help in the search for victims of the flood © AFP via Getty Images

Fernando Grande-Marlaska, the interior minister, said late on Friday: “It is impossible to know the number of missing people and it would be unwise for me to give a figure.” Rescuers have been unable to access some cut-off areas of the Valencia region.

The flooding, which was caused by torrential rain on Tuesday, is the worst natural disaster in modern Spanish history with a death toll surpassing floods that killed more than 200 people in Germany and Belgium in 2021.

Shell-shocked Spaniards have been absorbing horror stories of parents and children washed away by muddy torrents and elderly residents in inundated care homes screaming for help that never came.

In the worst hit areas, where supplies of food and clean water are running low, some people have resorted to looting. On Friday police said they had arrested 27 people for stealing from shops and offices in the Valencia area.

Volunteers distributed drinking water in Massanassa © AFP via Getty Images

Sánchez said the national government would send 5,000 more military personnel to the disaster zone to supplement the 3,000 already there. It would also double the number of police officers dispatched there to 10,000, he said.

Referring to the rescue effort, Sánchez said: “I know we have to do better, but I also know we have to do it together, united.” With the Valencia regional government in charge of the operation, Sánchez said he was ready to respond to its requests.

After thousands of volunteers trekked to afflicted areas on Friday to help clean up, the Valencia government sought to bring order to efforts on Saturday by directing people first to an arts and science centre away from the flood zone that it has turned into a nerve centre.

The disaster has left the regional and central governments facing searching questions about why help has not come sooner and why alerts about the intense rain arrived late and lacked urgency.

The grave toll has also highlighted the response to extreme weather caused by climate change, as well as the extent of unauthorised construction over the years in zones vulnerable to flooding where buildings should have been tightly controlled.