British couple missing for days in Spain floods found dead in car

Terry and Don Turner had been missing since deadly downpours struck Valencia on Tuesday

A British couple has been found dead in their car days after severe flash floods swept through Spain.

Don Turner, 78, and his wife Terry, 74, had not been seen since Tuesday, when torrential rains began to batter Valencia. Ms Turner had told friends that they were “popping out” to shop for supplies.

The couple’s daughter, Ruth O’Loughlin, confirmed the bodies were discovered on Saturday. Ms O’Loughlin told BBC Radio WM that she found out her parents had died after receiving a message from their friends asking to call them.

“He said ‘Ruth, get your husband,’ I called my husband in and he just said ‘Martin, hold your wife,’ and said that they’d been found and they’d been found in their car,” Ms O’Loughlin said.

“We still don’t know exactly what happened to them. The only thing we’ve got from this is that they were together. It’s not the way you want your parents to go,” she added.

The floods, described as the worst decades, have claimed the lives of more than 200 people, while rescuers race against time to locate survivors. The storm caught many victims in their vehicles on roads and in underground spaces such as car parks, tunnels and garages where rescue operations are particularly difficult.

British couple Don and Terry Turner have been found dead after flash floods hit Valencia (Handout)

Spanish rescue teams have not found any casualties so far in Valencia’s Bonaire shopping mall underground car park, the interior ministry said on Monday. The ministry said work was continuing in the car park, which has 5,700 parking spaces, to find out if there may be fatalities.

Thousands of Spaniards have flocked to affected towns to help with rescue efforts and clean up, but anger has been rising over a perceived lack of warning over the risk of flooding, and slow or insufficient support in the aftermath.

On Sunday, a crowd of enraged survivors hurled clots of mud at the Spanish king and queen, during their first visit to the centre of their nation’s deadliest natural disaster in living memory.

Spain’s national broadcaster reported that the barrage included a few rocks and other objects and that two bodyguards were treated for injuries. One could be seen with a bloody wound on his forehead. It was an unprecedented incident for a royal house that carefully crafts an image of monarchs adored by their country of nearly 48 million people.

Renee Turner, Ms O’Loughlin’s sister, also expressed her anger with Spanish authorities about the deaths of her parents. She told the BBC that she was “extremely angry”.

“Not just our parents, so many people have died in this tragedy, and it is absolutely tragic,” she said.

A view of mud and debris, following heavy rains that caused floods, at La Torre neighborhood in Valencia, Spain (Reuters)

Ms O’Loughlin has previously said that her parents had moved to Spain a decade ago as they “always wanted to live in the sunshine”.

“They were together. They had great friends there,” she said. “We got comfort in knowing that they made friends everywhere they went.”

Ms O’Loughlin said that she had been told her parents were missing on Thursday. “Friends had nipped up there because they hadn’t heard from Mum and Dad, the key was in the door, they could get into the property, the dogs were there and the car’s gone so they know that Mum and Dad haven’t gone back.”

Ms O’Loughlin said she last spoke to her mother the day before the floods, on Monday. “We talked about Mum and Dad coming over here next year to spend some time with us, and we just ended the call, and I’m really glad I said ‘I love you’ and she said she loves me too,” she said.

Commenting on the couple’s deaths, the Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British man and woman who have died in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities.”

The floods have also caused the death of another person from the UK, a 71-year-old man who died hours after being rescued from his home on the outskirts of Malaga after heavy rain and hailstorms triggered flash floods in the area.

A person crosses a street under a heavy rain in Barcelona (EPA)

Spain is deploying 7,500 troops to its eastern region hit by devastating floods, the government said on Monday. The army sent about 5,000 soldiers over the weekend to help distribute food and water, clean up streets and protect shops and properties from looters. A further 2,500 would join them, defence minister Margarita Robles told state-owned radio RNE.

The Spanish navy’s Galicia transport vessel arrived in Valencia’s port on Monday with marines, helicopters and trucks loaded with food and water to help with the relief effort, even as a strong hailstorm pummelled Barcelona some 180 miles to the north.

Meanwhile, Barcelona faced fresh torrential rain on Monday. Mobile phones in Barcelona screeched with an alert for “extreme and continued rainfall” on the southern outskirts of the city. The alert urged people to avoid any normally dry gorges or canals.

Spanish transport minister Oscar Puente said he was suspending all commuter trains in northeast Catalonia, a region with 8 million people, on request from civil protection officials.

Airport operator Aena said about 50 flights due to take off from Barcelona’s partially flooded El Prat airport were cancelled or severely delayed, while 17 due to land there were diverted. Some local train services were also cancelled.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report