Spain deploys 15,000 police and troops to help flood relief – as vigilante protection groups patrol streets

Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez has said nearly 15,000 troops and police have been deployed to help the cities and towns affected by Spain’s deadliest flooding disaster in recent history.

Frustration over the government’s management of the flooding crisis has sparked public outcry and prompted some citizens to turn to self-policing, frustrated by what they see as a lacklustre official response. Groups of local men are patrolling rubble-strewn, poorly lit streets in Paiporta, the suburb in Valencia where crowds pelted mud at Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia when they visited at the weekend – and where more than 60 people out of the total death toll of 217 were killed.

One 19-year-old man, who gave his name as Martin, told reporters that he and his friends are taking the law into their own hands because they believe police are not carrying out their duty to maintain public safety.

“We’re patrolling because we don’t want our neighbours to feel the insecurity they’ve been feeling the past few days due to various robberies,” he said. “People have already lost enough.”

Speaking at a press conference in Madrid on Tuesday, Mr Sanchez paid tribute to the work of the national police and civil guard.

“I remember, at the first moments of this emergency, there was talk of looting,” Mr Sanchez said. “Today, fortunately, we are observing that this looting is falling to absolutely marginal figures. More than 170 people have been detained.”

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The prime minister also announced a sweeping €10.6bn (£8.9bn) relief package to support the recovery of 78 flood-ravaged communities, likening the scale of aid being provided to the robust relief measures implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The relief package includes direct payments ranging from €20,000 to €60,000 for residents whose homes sustained damage, alongside substantial financial support for businesses and local governments in regions hit by the devastating floods.

Mr Sanchez also pledged to seek additional funding from the European Union, acknowledging the long road ahead after more than 200 people were killed by the flooding. Responding to Mr Sanchez’s announcement, Valencia’s president, Carlos Mazon, said local authorities have estimated that they will need three times that amount.

Mr Sanchez declared Valencia a disaster area, saying that around 15,000 soldiers and police officers had been dispatched to the province as well as 287 forest brigaders, around a hundred customs officers, 44 forensic physicians, and 600 specialised vehicles for pumping, cleaning, and supplying water to the affected areas.

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“We must continue working, with more resources, more coordination, and greater effort, until normality returns to all the municipalities and to all the homes affected by this tragedy,” he said.

Criticism of the authorities’ disaster response is continuing, with Mr Sanchez’s ruling Socialist Party and the conservative Popular Party – which governs the Valencia region – involved in a blame game over who is accountable for inadequate flood warnings and who holds responsibility for managing emergency operations.

In polling published on Tuesday by El Espanol, an online newspaper, Valencians gave the king and queen scores of more than seven out of 10 for their conduct, whereas Mr Mazon, the head of Valencia’s regional government, and Mr Sanchez were rated 3 and 2.6 respectively.

Regional leaders estimate that losses could exceed €31bn, with up to 4,500 businesses affected by the destruction caused by the floods.

Fears are also rising over the potential for an outbreak of infectious disease, with authorities advising residents to get tetanus shots and quickly clean mud off their skin.

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Mr Mazon warned of the risk of an epidemic, saying that tetanus, hepatitis and gastroenteritis were all possible. He told a press conference: “The first vaccinations are already being given to volunteers and neighbours.”

Elsewhere, emergency services discovered human remains in Letur, near Albacete in the Castilla-La Mancha region, where five people have been missing since last week’s floods. On Sunday, the body of a sixth victim, a 70-year-old woman, was found.

As search and rescue operations continue, authorities are using sniffer dogs to comb through a submerged 1,800-space underground car park at the Bonaire shopping centre in Valencia. Emergency services are still working around the clock after sudden, tsunami-like flooding caught staff and shoppers by surprise and trapped an unknown number of people.

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.

As police teams pump out the floodwater and search through the roughly 50 waterlogged vehicles discovered so far, no more bodies have yet been found.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report