Spain deploys 10,000 more soldiers and police to flooded Valencia region
Al Jazeera
Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in memory leaves 211 dead while dozens are still missing.
Spain is sending 5,000 more soldiers and 5,000 more police to the eastern region of Valencia after deadly floods this week, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has announced.
In a televised address on Saturday, Sanchez said the disaster was the second-deadliest flood in Europe this century and that Spain was carrying out its largest deployment of army and security force personnel in peacetime.
At least 211 people have been killed, including 202 in Valencia alone, in Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory.
Rescuers were still searching for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings on Saturday, four days after the monstrous flash floods that swept away everything in their path in the east of Spain. An unknown number of people remain missing.
Thousands of volunteers are helping to clean up the thick mud that is covering everything in streets, houses and businesses in the hardest-hit towns.
