Death Toll Rises To 12 In Majorca Floods

Death toll rises to 12 in Majorca floods

The death toll from flash floods that hit Spain's holiday island of Majorca rose to 12 on Thursday as information about the Spanish, German, Dutch and British victims began to emerge after they were identified.

Sant Lloren des Cardassar, Spain, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Oct, 2018 ) :The death toll from flash floods that hit Spain's holiday island of Majorca rose to 12 on Thursday as information about the Spanish, German, Dutch and British victims began to emerge after they were identified.

An elderly British couple, their Spanish taxi driver and a holidaying German journalist on his way to the airport were among those who died as intense rain caused riverbeds to overflow with raging waters that tore through streets and swept cars away on Tuesday.

Rescue workers were still searching for a missing five-year-old boy who had been in a car with his mother and sister when they were hit by a barrage of water.

His sister survived, reportedly helped to safety by their mother, who died.

A massive clean-up was under way in the mud-covered streets of Sant Llorenc des Cardassar, one of the worst-hit towns, with excavation machines clearing streets of debris.

Soldiers used shovels to clear the thick mud from the streets of the town, 60 kilometres (40 miles) east of the island's capital of Palma.

Locals tried to recover lost valuables from the wreckage of their homes with the help of volunteers.

Some 900 emergency services workers were involved in the clean-up operation and the search for the missing boy, the public administration minister in the regional government of the Balearic Islands, Catalina Caldera, told reporters.

After Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's visit to the disaster zone in the island popular with foreigners, King Felipe VI and his wife Letizia were due to visit on Friday, a source at the royal palace told AFP, requesting anonymity.