REDOVAN: At least six people have died in heavy storms in south-eastern Spain since Wednesday evening, authorities said on Saturday.
The sixth body was found by police in the province Alicante on Saturday. The 41-year-old man appeared to have been riding a motorcycle in the heavily-flooded area.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed his condolences to the victim’s family on Twitter. “Sadly, we mourn a new victim in Orihuela,” he posted, adding that he stood in solidarity with everyone affected by the storms.
Sanchez said he would do everything to ensure the region could return to normal as soon as possible.
On Friday, a man died when his car got stuck in a flooded underpass in Almeria.
He had apparently over looked warnings as he drove into the tunnel, according to press reports. Another man died in La Jamula, near Granada.
Near Alicante, another man died after appearing to have ignored warnings about the storms when he also drove into a flooded tunnel,the daily El Pais reported earlier on Friday.
On Thursday, a 61-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman died when they were trapped in their car as it was dragged away by water, El Pais reported.
Earlier in the day, a 36-year-old man died in the Andalusia region after his car was swept away in the rushing waters, the local emergency services said. His empty car had been found earlier in the day.
Also in the morning, a middle-aged man died in the coastal city of Almeria after his car got stuck in a tunnel that flooded within minutes.
City mayor Ramon Fernandez-Pacheco told Cadena Ser radio that police managed to save two other people who were also in the vehicle but were unable to save him.
Two other people, a 61-year-old man and his sister, 51, died on Thursday when their vehicle was swept away as fast-moving waters swamped a road in Caudete, a municipality around 100 kilometres southwest of the port city of Valencia.
Parts of southeastern Spain have since Wednesday suffered some of the heaviest rainfall on record, which has caused chaos on the roads, cutting public transport and prompting rivers to burst their banks, flooding homes.
In Redovan, the floodwaters reached knee-height with residents working tirelessly to bail out the water with buckets, an AFP photographer said, while rescuers were using diggers and trucks to rescue other stranded locals.
More than 3,500 people have been evacuated from their homes, the interior ministry said.
Some 3,000 state security forces, including police, firefighters and soldiers from a military emergency unit, were taking part in the rescue operation, the ministry said.
During the afternoon, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska flew in to survey the damage, taking a helicopter ride over the waterlogged town of Orihuela, some five kilometres south of Redovan, a spokesman said.
Footage broadcast on Spanish media showed emergency services personnel using a jet ski to inspect a flooded highway tunnel as rivers of brown water gushed down the streets, in some cases washing cars away.
— AFP
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