Spain’s king and queen and their entourage which included Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez were met with hostility and pelted with mud on Sunday during a visit to the flood-ravaged Valencia region.
Authorities said the death toll has risen to 217 following Tuesday’s deadly storms and flash floods. With many people still missing, the death toll is expected to increase.
In the town of Paiporta, near Valencia, some locals reportedly shouted “murderers” and “resign” at the visiting delegation, which consisted of King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, Sánchez and Carlos Mazón, president of the Valencia regional government.
Others yelled “Grab a shovel and lend a hand,” according to TV broadcasts.
The atmosphere in the town, which is among the worst affected, was very tense, the state broadcaster RTVE reported. The royal couple tried to talk to the people who approached the group and to calm them.
State television RTVE broadcast the event live and showed Queen Letizia, her face and hands covered in mud, talking to a woman, visibly shaken, with mud on her hair and clothes.
King Felipe VI also tried to comfort residents and also hugged two younger residents, as RTVE showed. After the first mud was thrown, he continued his attempts, with his security people putting up an umbrella to protect him.
But they finally took him to a safe place. In view of the extremely tense situation, the planned visit to the town of Chiva was also postponed, RTVE reported.
The royal visit came five days after the severe storms battered the east and south of Spain.
Many people from the devastated communities felt completely abandoned in the first hours and days after the disaster, with cars and furniture piled up on the muddy streets of villages left without drinking water, food, electricity or telecommunications.
Many mayors took matters into their own hands and organized initial assistance for their inhabitants in the villages, which were cut off from the road network.
Support also came from volunteers who walked from the city of Valencia to the nearby villages with salvage equipment and donations of food, bottled water and clothing.
Severe weather continues to affect Spain’s Mediterranean coast. An orange alert – the second-highest level – is in effect in parts of the Valencia region, including the province of Castellón, where heavy rainfall may occur.
Recovery efforts are now in their sixth day. The search is particularly difficult in tunnels and flooded underground or multi-storey car parks.
On Saturday, Sánchez said a further 5,000 soldiers and 5,000 police officers would be deployed. The Spanish central government in Madrid says more than 3,600 military personnel are currently deployed in the worst-affected areas near the city of Valencia.
Previously, there had been harsh criticism, especially from the affected towns, which had been left to their own devices in the first few days.
In many of the worst-hit 15 or so villages, roads are still blocked by piled-up cars or stranded household goods and covered in thick mud.
Help has now started to arrive in many of these villages, thanks in part to the efforts of many volunteers, and the power supply is also largely functioning again.
In the area west and south of the city of Valencia, an otherwise usually dry riverbed was turned into a raging torrent by the heavy rainfall on Tuesday and rushed towards the sea through several villages, causing severe damage.
