Death toll rises to 12 in Majorca floods

13.8 million foreign tourists visited Spain's Balearic Islands in 2017

SANT LLORENç DES CARDASSAR (SPAIN): Rescue workers found the bodies of a man and a woman on Thursday on Spain's holiday island of Majorca, bringing to 12 the death toll from flash floods that tore through streets and swept away cars.

Emergency services in the Balearic archipelago tweeted that a man and a woman were found near Arta, one of the affected towns, "close to the area" where the car of a missing German couple had been found.

A spokesperson for the Guardia Civil police said the bodies were "possibly" those of the two Germans.

Rescue workers were still searching for a five-year-old boy missing after intense rain surprised locals on Tuesday afternoon.

People only had a precious few seconds to react before a torrent descended.

A massive clean-uunderwayer way Thursday 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, the public administration minister in the regional government of the Balearic Islands, Catalina Caldera, told reporters.

The missing child had been in a car in Sant Llorenc with his mother, who was one of those killed, a spokesperson for the central government's representative in the Balearic Islands said. The boy's sister survived.

Local media reported that the mother managed to save her daughter before being swept away.

In total emergency services say seven men and five women were killed.

A British couple and a Dutch woman were among the dead.

The elderly couple were travelling in a taxi which got swept away by flood waters, the central government spokesperson said.

They were reportedly on their way to their hotel in the east coast fishing town of Cala Bona after landing at Palma airport.

The taxi driver was also among the dead.

One of the male victims could not yet be identified but is also believed to be a foreigner.

Muddy waters rushed down roads, houses were flooded and vehicles piled up on top of each other, video footage showed.

"This is a disaster," said Antonio Galmes Riera, 55, as he used a big bucket to remove mud from his home with the help of two other men.

A damaged sofa and chair along with a basket of household objects which he will have to throw out sat outside the door of the home.



Marks on the walls showed flood waters reached up to a height of at least a metre (three feet).

"I had very valuable stuff here. Look at this clock, it was worth over 2,000 euros," Riera told AFP as he pointed to an antique wall clock covered in mud.

Cati Morey, who has a beauty salon in Sant Llorenc, said they had to throw out furniture and "are trying to save everything we can".

The regional government declared three days of mourning.

Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal joined in a minute of silence at his academy in the neighbouring town of Manacor.

Spain's central government "has taken the first steps to ensure that those affected receive the necessary help as soon as possible," government spokesperson Isabel Celaa told reporters.

Last year, 13.8 million foreign tourists visited the Balearic Islands, according to official statistics. The biggest numbers came from Germany and Britain.

Many more foreigners live in the archipelago.

Environmental group Ecologistas en Accion said "the tragedy in Sant Llorenc could have been avoided" if laws banning building in floodplains had been respected.

Meanwhile at least two people died when several cars were swept away by flash floods triggered by heavy rain Wednesday night in southern France, authorities said.