Spain floods latest: Rescuers frantically dig for missing in underground shopping centre and car parks
Flooding that killed at least 217 people, mostly near Valencia, dumped rain on Barcelona on Monday
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Your support makes all the difference.Rescue teams in Valencia are intensifying their search efforts in a submerged underground carpark at a shopping centre, where severe flooding left vehicles and the structure underwater.
Fatalities from Spain’s worst flash floods in modern history rose to 217 with almost all of them in the Valencia region and more than 60 in the suburb of Paiporta. Hundreds are still missing.
Following the record-breaking flash floods, emergency services are working around the clock to clear out the 1,800-space underground car park, where sudden, tsunami-like flooding caught staff and shoppers by surprise.
Emergency crews are navigating murky waters to locate potential victims at the shopping centre, using boats to access areas where at least a metre of water remains.
As police teams pump out the floodwaters and search through the roughly 50 waterlogged vehicles discovered so far, no bodies have yet been found.
Survivors described the terrifying event to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo as “a nightmare” and “worse” than the “tsunami movie” with shop assistants recounting how they narrowly escaped as torrents of water surged into the complex.
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Spanish rescue services scour submerged underground car parks for casualties
In Valencia, the search continues for bodies inside houses and thousands of wrecked cars strewn in the streets, on highways, and in canals that channeled last week's floods into populated areas.
Spain's interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said that authorities can still not give a reliable estimate of the missing. Spanish national television RTVE, however, has broadcast pleas for help by several desperate people whose loved ones are unaccounted for.
In the Aldaia municipality, some 50 soldiers, police and firefighters, some wearing wetsuits, searched in a huge shopping center's underground parking lot for possible victims. They used a small boat and spotlights to move around in the huge structure with vehicles submerged in at least a meter of murky water.
Police spokesman Ricardo Gutierrez told reporters that so far some 50 vehicles had been found and no bodies had been discovered there.
The Bonaire shopping mall's 1,800 underground parking spaces quickly filled with water and mud on Tuesday and Wednesday when the southern outskirts of Valencia were hit by a tsunami-like flooding. The team is using four pumps to remove the water.
Citizens, volunteers and thousands of soldiers and police officers pressed on with their gargantuan clean-up effort to clear out mud and debris.
Barcelona aiport flooded - picture
Watch: Barcelona Airport runway resembles river as extreme rainfall hits
Watch: Barcelona Airport runway resembles river as extreme rainfall hits
Extreme rain has turned the Barcelona airport runway into a river with many flights suspended as a result of severe weather. This footage shows severe flooding at the airport on Monday (4 November)as the severe weather that wreaked havoc in Valencia brought heavy rain across Spain. Spain’s transport minister Oscar Puente announced a crisis committee has been set up to monitor the impact at the airport - with 50 flights diverted so far. Alerts were sent to mobile phones in Barcelona with warnings of “extreme and continued rainfall”. Residents have also been told to avoid any normally dry gorges or canals.
British couple missing for days in Spain floods found dead in car
British couple missing for days in Spain floods found dead in car
Terry and Don Turner had been missing since deadly downpours struck Valencia on Tuesday
Barcelona Airport runway flooded as country put on red alert
Footage shows flooding in town outside Barcelona
Footage has shown severe flooding in the town of Viladecans just outside of Barcelona.
50 cars recovered in Aldaia municipality
Police spokesman Ricardo Gutierrez told reporters that so far some 50 vehicles had been found in the Aldaia municipality, and no bodies had been discovered there.
He said soldiers, police and firefighters, some wearing wetsuits, searched a huge shopping centre’s underground car park for possible victims. They used a small boat and spotlights to move around in the huge structure with vehicles submerged in at least 3ft of murky water.
Spanish army arrives in Valencia - picture
Crashing waves in a hilltop village: Spain’s night of terror
Crashing waves in a hilltop village: Inside a night of terror from Spain’s floods
Residents could not believe what they saw through the darkness
People clear mud from a street in Valencia after mass flooding
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