Crowd hurls mud, insults at Spanish royals, PM

Spain’s king, queen, and PM face angry crowd during flood-hit town visit as locals blame government response.

VALENCIA:

Furious locals pelted Spain's king, queen and prime minister on Sunday with mud and cries of "murderers!", forcing them to cut short a visit to the town worst hit by floods which have killed more than 200.

As a new storm headed for the region, an angry crowd in the town of Paiporta focused its wrath on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the head of the Valencia region, both of whom were whisked away by security.

Mud hit King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia in the face and clothes as they tried to calm the angry crowd five days after the floods hit.

The extraordinary scenes underscored the depth of anger over the response to Spain's worst disaster in decades, with the toll now at 217 dead and hopes fading for finding survivors.

The king and queen arrived went to a crisis centre in Paiporta, ground zero for a disaster Sanchez called the second deadliest flood in Europe this century.

But extra security guards were soon called to stand between the royals and the angry crowd, whose ire seemed most directed at Sanchez and Valencia regional governmet head Carlos Mazon.

"I understand the social anger and of course, I'm here to receive it. This is my political and moral obligation," Mazon said in a post on X, while calling the king's conduct "exemplary".

The king and queen spent an hour trying to calm tempers before leaving. Sanchez and the local politicians quickly left, but not before the rear window of the premier's vehicle was broken.

Sanchez later said while he empathised with the "anguish and suffering" of the victims, he condemned "all forms of violence".

Nearly all the deaths have been in the Valencia region, where Spain's meteorological agency on Sunday evening issued a "red alert" for new storms in the region.

Police using megaphones urged residents in Valencia city and the surrounding region to return home as the first drops began to fall, according to an AFP journalist. The the AEMEt weather agency forecast "high intensity" storms bringing up to nine centimetres (3.5 inches) of rainfall in one hour.