Two young brothers who were swept from their father’s arms during the devastating Valencia floods have been found dead.
Ruben, three, and Izan, five, were washed away in powerful currents after a lorry trailer came loose and caved in the walls of their bungalow home in Torrent near Valencia after smashing into it. They had been waiting at the dinner table for their mum to join them for the supper their dad had cooked the family.
Today a relative confirmed the search for the youngsters had ended in heartbreak after their bodies were discovered “several kilometres” from their home. The boys are said to have been found in different locations. Police informed their family last night.
Their aunt Barbara Sastre admitted this morning: “We’re devastated. We weren’t expecting them to be found alive but it always hurts when you get confirmation they’ve died.” Another relative said: “Our little angels are now looking after us from Heaven.”
Spaniard Andres Cano Tribaldos, one of the well-wishers who began to pen messages on social media as news the brothers had been found dead began to emerge, wrote: “Pain, tears and my soul ripped apart at hearing the lifeless bodies of Izan and Ruben have been found. Only five and three years ago. Torrent, Valencia and the whole of Spain mourns their death.”
Volunteers, police and rescue teams from as far afield as Mexico had been searching for the youngsters over the past two weeks. The boys’ dad only survived by clinging onto a tree branch until he was rescued from the floodwater four hours later. The latest official death toll of 215 people in Valencia province following last month’s killer floods is not thought to include the two brothers.
Among the Valencia victims are British expats Don Turner, 78 and his wife Terry, 74, found dead in their car near their home in the small town of Pedralba a 45-minute drive north-west of the provincial capital after telling friends they were “popping out to get gas.” In Malaga province, where a new red weather alert has been activated and thousands of people evacuated from their homes, a 71-year-old British expat died in hospital a fortnight ago after being rescued hours earlier from his flooded cottage.