VALENCIA, Spain (AP) — A crowd of angry survivors of Spain’s floods threw mud and shouted insults at Spain’s King Felipe VI and government officials as they visited one of the worst-hit cities for the first time Sunday.
Government officials accompanied the monarch as he tried to talk to locals, while others shouted at him in Paiporta, a devastated suburb of Valencia city.
The police had to intervene with mounted officers to hold back the crowd of several dozen.
“Go away! Go away!” and “murderers!” it sounded, among other insults.
After being forced to seek shelter from the mud, the king remained calm and made several attempts to talk to individual residents. One person seemed to have cried on his shoulder. He shook hands with a man.
It was an unprecedented incident for a Royal House that takes great care to create an image of a monarch loved by the nation.
Queen Letizia and Valencia Regional President Carlo Mazón were also part of the contingent.
More than 200 people died in Tuesday’s floods and thousands had their homes destroyed by the wall of water and mud. At least 60 of the dead were in Paiporta, an epicenter of suffering.
