VALENCIA: Furious locals pelted Spain’s royals and premier on Sunday with mud and cries of “murderers!”, forcing officials to cut short their visit to the town worst hit by the floods which have killed more than 200.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were hit in the face and clothes with mud as they tried to calm the angry crowd, AFP journalists saw. However, the angry crowd in the town of Paiporta focused most of its wrath on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Valencia region governor Carlos Mazon, both of whom were whisked away by security.

Broadcast on Spanish TV, the extraordinary scenes underscored the depth of the anger in the country over the response to the nation’s worst such disaster in decades, with the toll ever rising and hopes for finding survivors fading.

The king and queen arrived just after midday at a crisis centre in Paiporta, ground zero for a disaster PM Sanchez called the second deadliest flood in Europe this century. But more security guards were soon called to stand between the royals and the rest of the delegation and the angry crowd.

PM, governor escorted away as King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia hit in the face and clothes with mud

Later public television said their visit to the flood-hit region had been suspended.

Emergency services on Sunday updated the death toll to 217.

Authorities have war­ned the toll could yet rise, as Met Office issued a fresh warning for heavy downpours in the region. Up to 100 litres per square metre (22 gallons per square yard) of water could fall in places in the province of Castellon and the area surrounding Valencia.

With phone and transport networks damaged, establishing a precise figure of missing people is difficult. Transport Minister Oscar Puente told El Pais that certain places might remain inaccessible by land for weeks.

On Sunday, the Valencian government limited the number of volunteers authorised to travel to the city’s southern suburbs to 2,000 and restricted access to 12 localities. Despite this, thousands took to the streets of the city of Valencia’s centre to make way to nearby communes on foot, carrying brooms and shovels to help those affected.

‘Towns buried by mud’

Authorities have come under fire over the warning systems before the floods, and stricken residents have complained that the response to the disaster has been too slow.

“I am aware the response is not enough, there are problems and severe shortages... towns buried by mud, desperate people searching for their relatives... we have to improve,” PM Sanchez said.

With the torrents of muddy water having wrecked towns and swept away cars, restoring order and distributing aid to destroyed towns and villages — some of which have been cut off from food, water and power — is a priority. With Spain deploying an extra 10,000 troops, police and civil guards to the Valencia region, the country was carrying out its largest deployment of military and sec­urity force personnel in peacetime, Sanchez said.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2024