Majorca flash floods claim nine lives, including 2 British nationals
Footage showed cars being swept away, houses flooded and vehicles piled up
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At least nine people died, including two British nationals, and six others were missing yesterday in devastating flash floods on the Spanish holiday island of Majorca, authorities said.
Footage broadcast on Spanish television showed cars being swept away by raging, muddy waters, houses flooded and vehicles piled one on top of the other after the Mediterranean island was pounded with heavy rain in just a few hours.
One witness told a local newspaper he had to swim out of his car through a window to safety.
“I swam 500 metres through the torrent until I got to a house,” Manuel Torrescusa told the Diario de Mallorca. “I hardly had any clothes on me as they all got caught on a metal fence when I was swimming.”
A spokesman for the Spanish central government’s office in the Balearic Islands said nine people had died while six others had been formally identified as missing.
He warned there more people missing.
Antonia Bauza, deputy mayor could be of Sant Llorenc des Cardassar, told Spanish radio that two British nationals were among the dead.
She added there were Britons among the missing.
“The priority is to identify survivors and rescue people stuck at home,” Bauza said. “We have lots of vacation homes.”
Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal, who is from the affected area in Majorca, said on Instagram he was offering to open up his sports centre and tennis academy to people displaced by the floods.
“Our most sincere condolences to the loved ones of the victims of the serious floods in San Llorenc,” he wrote. also