Spain’s Flood Death Toll Rises To 12

Wreckages of cars and debris laying on a flooded street in Sant Llorenc des Cardassar, Majorca/AFP

The death toll from flash floods that tore through streets and swept away cars in Spain’s holiday island of Majorca, has risen to 12.

Emergency services in the Balearic archipelago tweeted that a man and a woman were found near Arta, one of the affected towns, “close to the area” where the car of a missing German couple had been found.

A spokesman for the Guardia Civil police said the bodies were “possibly” those of the two Germans.

Rescue workers were still searching for a five-year-old boy missing after intense rain surprised locals on Tuesday afternoon.

People only had a precious few seconds to react before a torrent descended.

A massive clean-up was underway on Thursday in the mud-covered streets of Sant Llorenc des Cardassar, one of the worst-hit towns, with excavation machines clearing streets of debris.

Soldiers used shovels to clear the thick mud from the streets of the town, 60 kilometers (40 miles) east of the island’s capital of Palma.

Locals tried to recover lost valuables from the wreckage of their homes with the help of volunteers.

Some 900 emergency services workers were involved in the clean-up operation and the search for the missing, the public administration minister in the regional government of the Balearic Islands, Catalina Caldera, told reporters.

The missing child had been in a car in Sant Llorenc with his mother, who was one of those killed, a spokesman for the central government’s representative in the Balearic Islands said. The boy’s sister survived.

Local media reported that the mother managed to save her daughter before being swept away.

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