Spanish authorities on Thursday stated they discovered the physique of a 56-year-old man who died after being swept away in floods within the jap Valencia area final yr, the nation’s deadliest such catastrophe in many years.
DNA evaluation confirmed {that a} corpse discovered on Tuesday within the Turia river belonged to certainly one of three individuals reported lacking because the tragedy on Oct. 29 final yr that killed greater than 230 individuals, a Valencia courtroom stated in an announcement.
The sufferer, like the 2 different lacking individuals, “had already been declared legally dead” and so the demise toll didn’t improve, the courtroom added.
The water had dragged the physique some 19 miles from the city of Pedralba to the municipality of Manises outdoors the regional capital Valencia, Spain’s third-largest metropolis.
A volunteer works on household photographs broken in the course of the devastating flash floods final yr in Valencia, Spain, at a discipline laboratory as a part of a restoration course of carried out by college students and professors from the Conservation and Restoration program on the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Jan. 17, 2025.
Bernat Armangue/AP
A state funeral will happen within the metropolis subsequent week, on Oct. 29, to mark as soon as yr because the catastrophe, which raised critical questions concerning the adequacy of alert methods and the emergency response.
Campaigners have taken to the streets each month, demanding the resignation of the pinnacle of the regional authorities Carlos Mazon over his dealing with of the floods, with the following demonstration scheduled for Saturday.
Regional authorities insist they didn’t have the data wanted to warn individuals sooner.
Earlier than-and-after satellite tv for pc pictures of the town of Valencia illustrated the dimensions of the disaster, exhibiting the transformation of the Mediterranean metropolis right into a panorama inundated with muddy waters.
Satellite tv for pc views of the V-33 freeway earlier than (above) and after the floods, in Valencia, Spain, taken on Oct. 18, 2024, and Oct. 31, 2024, respectively.
Maxar Applied sciences by way of REUTERS