Rescue Teams In Barcelona Search For Two People Swept Away By River

Rescue teams from 3 different Barcelona corporations successful Cubelles resumed connected Sunday nan hunt for 2 people, a mother and her child, who were swept distant yesterday by nan River Foix arsenic it roared done nan municipality owed to torrential rains.

A monolithic large wind battered nan occidental Spanish communities of Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia connected Saturday, erstwhile astatine astir 8:30 p.m. a personification called 112 emergency services claiming he had witnessed really nan stream currents had dragged distant nan mother and her child.

However, according to Rosa M. Fonoll, nan Mayor of Cubelles, location are nary reports of missing persons successful her locality. But nan Catalonia Minister of nan Interior,  Núria Parlon, said pinch reporters this Sunday and confirmed that nan missing persons are a female and a child, according to an ABC report.

The Foix Reservoir floodgates

Although it has not been linked to nan disappearance, respective news outlets person highlighted nan truth that nan Catalan Water Agency opened nan Foix Reservoir floodgates connected Saturday, while Civil Protection sent an alert connection to Cubelles’ residents via compartment phones, informing them not to attack rivers aliases streams because of abrupt h2o level rises.

Fire section unit were moving successful nan area wherever nan alleged disappearance occurred, attempting to power nan landslide. In a video posted connected X by “A pastry de Calle”, monolithic flows of muddy h2o are seen spilling onto the streets of Cubelles.

According to nan witness, 2 group were crossing nan Foix River connected a woody footbridge adjacent its mouth. The span presumably collapsed owed to nan river’s current, and nan 2 were swept away. In consequence to nan call, firefighters began searching passim nan evening and into dawn, scouring nan watercourse from nan past constituent wherever nan 2 persons were seen.

Parlon visited Cubelles to supervise nan rescue teams. She said that astir 70 firefighters were deployed to activity connected “the imaginable disappearance of nan 2 people” successful nan Barcelona municipality and has indicated that “the hunt will proceed for nan adjacent fewer hours.”

Torrential rains affected train schedules and a hospital

However, nan section occurrence chief, Ricard Costa, said nan rescue efforts mightiness proceed for a fewer much days. He besides said his squad is basing nan hunt connected nan presumption that nan 2 group were swept “by nan existent successful nan guidance of nan river” and were past seen “170 metres from nan coastline. We are focusing our efforts from a small further upstream to nan rima of nan stream and 500 metres beyond nan coastline and 2 kilometres of beach.”

The rains caused flooding successful galore homes and buildings, including nan Alto Penedes Regional Hospital successful Vilagranca del Penedés, which will stay closed for respective weeks. Seventy-one group who were successful nan infirmary astatine nan clip of nan flooding were transferred to different aesculapian centres.

The dense water downpour besides caused train cancellations of trains departing and arriving successful Barcelona’s Sants Station, wherever nan Red Cross had to assistance astir 150 group who were forced to walk nan nighttime astatine nan station, RTVE reported.

Catalonia, which was connected reddish alert this Saturday owed to dense rain, woke up to better, sunnier upwind this Sunday.