SPAIN – Rescue teams discovered the bodies of eight people on Thursday who had been trapped in a garage after devastating flash floods hit easter Spain, as the death toll in the Valencia region alone climbed to 155. Local authorities have not disclosed how many people are still unaccounted for after Europe’s deadliest floods in years and Defence minister Margarita Robles said the final national death toll could be much greater. Opposition politicians accused the central government in Madrid of acting too slowly to warn residents and send in rescue teams, prompting the Interior Ministry to say regional authorities were responsible for civil protection measures. Valencia Mayor Maria Jose Catala told reporters that a local policeman was among the eight bodies found drowned in the garage in the city’s suburb of La Torre. In the same neighbourhood, she added, a 45-year-old woman was also found dead in her home.

“Those people wouldn’t have died if they had been warned in time”,  Laura Villaescusa, a neighbour and manager of a local supermarket, told Reuters. Meteorologists have said a year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours in parts of Valencia on Tuesday. The floods have battered Valencia’s infrastructure, sweeping away bridges, roads and rail tracks and submerging farmland in a region that produces about two-thirds of the citrus fruit grown in Spain, a leading global exporter of oranges.

Thousands of people carrying bags or pushing shopping trolleys could be seen on Thursday crossing a pedestrian bridge over the Turia river from La Torre into Valencia city centre to stock up on essential supplies such as toilet paper and water. Maribel Albalat, mayor of the nearby town of Paiporta, said they had never received a warning of the imminent danger of flooding. She said 62 people had died in her town. “We found a lot of elderly people inside their homes and people who went to get their cars. It was a trap”,  she told TVE. (channelnewsasia)

Photo: Damaged cars are seen along a road affected by torrential rains that caused flooding, on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain. (Reuters)…[+]