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The Minister of the Interior raises the death to 207 and says that "unfortunately we are going to have more deaths" after floods in Valencia

Updated

On the third day of official mourning, heavy machinery teams are expected to arrive while the Generalitat Valenciana organizes volunteers.

Third day of official mourning, with the order from the Valencian Government to restrict traffic on the roads affected by the DANA until tomorrow, Sunday at 23:59, which has left 207 dead, mostly in the province of Valencia and the remaining five in Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia.

An enormous line, with thousands of people armed with household tools, patiently wait for the organization, this time summoned at 07:00 by the President of the Valencian Government, Carlos Mazón, has already formed to board the bus and head to towns like Sedaví, Alfafar, or Catarroja. Until today, the crowds of people organized spontaneously given the magnitude of the disaster.

The arrival of an extraordinary convoy of heavy machinery is planned to accelerate the cleaning and vehicle removal tasks, along with the 500 new Army personnel, who are joining the 1,200 already deployed in Utiel, Requena, Riba-roja, Torrent, Paiporta, and Algemesí, mainly, and the supply of arriving products.

The Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, stated on Friday night regarding the number of victims caused by the DANA, "it is reasonable to think that we will have more fatalities," and added that "the data of 1,900 missing persons have not been considered."

This was expressed by the Interior Minister in statements to the Hora 25 program on Cadena SER, collected by EFE, where he detailed that "the update is that there are 207 confirmed victims. It is impossible to know the number of missing persons, and it would not be prudent on my part to give a figure."

"The data of 1,900 missing persons have not been considered; these are the calls received by 112 reporting that they cannot find their relatives, but this is mostly due to communication failures. Additionally, people who eventually find their relatives do not report it, so predictions cannot be made. Assessments in that regard would lead us to error and not generate trust," Grande-Marlaska explained.

The Interior Minister added: "It is reasonable to think that we will have more fatalities. I do not like to talk about probable numbers. There are very few areas, almost anecdotal, where some competent authority has not arrived to carry out rescue operations."