The Spanish king and queen and their entourage, including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, were received with hostility and pelted with mud during a visit to the flood-affected region of Valencia on Sunday.
Authorities said the death toll rose to 217 as a result of Tuesday’s deadly storms and flash floods. With many people still missing, the death toll is expected to rise.
In the town of Paiporta, near Valencia, some locals reportedly shouted “murderers” and “resign” at the visiting delegation, which included King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, Sánchez and Carlos Mazón, president of the Valencia regional government.
Others shouted: “Grab a shovel and lend a hand,” according to TV broadcasts.
The atmosphere in the city, which is among the hardest hit, was very tense, state broadcaster RTVE reported. The royal couple tried to speak to and calm the people who approached the group.
State television RTVE broadcast the event live, showing Queen Letizia, her face and hands covered in mud, talking to a woman, visibly shaken, with mud on her hair and clothes.
King Felipe VI also tried to comfort residents and also hugged two younger residents, RTVE showed. After the first mud was thrown, he continued his efforts, with his security men putting up an umbrella to protect him.
But eventually they took him to a safe place. Given the extremely tense situation, the planned visit to the city of Chiva was also postponed, RTVE reports.
The royal visit came five days after heavy storms hit eastern and southern Spain.
Many people from the devastated communities felt completely abandoned in the first hours and days after the disaster, with cars and furniture piled up on the muddy streets of villages without drinking water, food, electricity or telecommunications.
Many mayors took matters into their own hands and organized first aid for their residents in villages cut off from the road network.
Support also came from volunteers who walked from the city of Valencia to nearby villages with salvage materials and donations of food, bottled water and clothing.
Severe weather continues to hit Spain’s Mediterranean coast. An orange warning – the second highest level – is in force in parts of the Valencia region, including the province of Castellón, where heavy rainfall is possible.
Recovery efforts are now in their sixth day. Searching is especially difficult in tunnels and flooded underground parking garages or parking garages.
On Saturday, Sánchez said another 5,000 soldiers and 5,000 police officers would be deployed. Spain’s central government in Madrid says more than 3,600 troops are currently deployed in the worst-hit areas near the city of Valencia.
Previously, there had been harsh criticism, especially from the affected cities, which had been left to their own devices in the first days.
In many of the 15 or so worst-affected villages, roads remain blocked by piled-up cars or stranded household goods and covered in thick mud.
Aid is now arriving in many of these villages, partly thanks to the efforts of many volunteers, and the power supply is largely functioning again.
In the area west and south of the city of Valencia, heavy rainfall turned an otherwise dry riverbed into a raging torrent on Tuesday and flowed towards the sea through several villages, causing serious damage.
