Thousands of people demonstrated in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia on Saturday against regional authorities’ handling of devastating floods that killed more than 220 people in one of Europe’s worst natural disasters in decades.
In the latest demonstration over flooding, protesters in the center of Valencia demanded the resignation of regional government leader Carlos Mazzone and chanted “Murderers!” Raised slogans.
One banner read, “Our hands are stained with mud, with your blood.” Some protesters threw dirty shoes outside the government building while others covered it with soil.
Residents in the affected areas accused Mazzone of issuing the alert too late, at 8 pm on 29 October, when water was already entering many nearby towns and villages.
The Valencian leader has said that if authorities had been informed about the seriousness of the situation by the official water monitoring body they would have issued the alarm earlier. Mazzone did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
“We want to show our outrage and anger at the poor management of this disaster that has affected so many people,” said Anna Oliver, president of Acío Cultural del País Valenciano, one of about 30 groups organizing the protest. “
Although the demonstration was largely peaceful, at one point police charged stone-throwing protesters and objects thrown at the city council building caused minor damage.
Following several days of storm warnings from the National Weather Service beginning October 25, some municipalities and local governments sounded the alarm much earlier than the regional government.
For example, the University of Valencia asked its employees not to come to work on 28 October. Many town halls suspended activities, closed public facilities and asked people to stay at home.
The weather service AEMET raised the risk level of heavy rainfall in the area to red alert at 7:36 am on 29 October.
About 80 people are still missing in the deadliest floods in a European country since floods in Portugal killed nearly 500 in 1967.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
