Family
A missing British couple have been found dead in their car days after flash flooding hit Spain, their family have confirmed to the BBC.
Don Turner, 78, and his wife, Terry, 74, had not been seen since heavy downpours struck Valencia on Tuesday.
The couple’s daughter, Ruth O’Loughlin, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, confirmed her parents’ bodies were found on Saturday.
“We held out hope that they were still alive and maybe sheltering somewhere,” she told the BBC.
Her mother, Terry, had told friends they were “popping out” to get some gas.
Whilst holding back tears, Ms O’Loughlin told BBC Radio WM she found out her parents, who lived near Pedralba, had died after receiving a message from their friends asking to call them.
“He said ‘Ruth, get your husband’, I called my husband in and he just said ‘Martin, hold your wife’, and said that they’d been found and they’d been found in their car.”
“We still don’t know exactly what happened to them. The only thing we’ve got from this is that they were together. It’s not the way you want your parents to go.”
It is Spain’s worst flooding disaster in generations, 217 people have died and rescuers are battling to find survivors.
‘Extremely angry’
Her sister, Renee Turner, said she had last spoken to her father on Monday and he said he would message her the following day, but she did not hear from him.
“Sometimes that’s not unusual, we can go a day or so without messaging every five minutes,” she explained.
After seeing the flooding on the news, she messaged her father to ask if they were both OK, but did not receive a response.
In an emotional interview, Ms Turner added she was “extremely angry” at the Spanish authorities and the local government.
“Not just our parents, so many people have died in this tragedy, and it is absolutely tragic.
“It should not have happened, not at all.”
Ms O’Loughlin previously said her parents had moved to Spain from Burntwood about 10 years ago, as they “always wanted to live in the sunshine”.
“They were together. They had great friends there,” she said. “We got comfort in knowing that they made friends everywhere they went.”
She said she was told the pair were missing on Thursday, after friends checked on them and found their pets at home.
Mr and Mrs Turner were both retired and lived in a bungalow with their dogs.
Ms O’Loughlin said she last spoke to her mother the day before the floods, when they “had a good chat,” but she was not able to reach either of her parents upon learning of the flooding.
“We talked about mum and dad coming over here next year to spend some time with us and we just ended the call and I’m really glad I said ‘I love you’ and she said she loves me too,” Ms O’Loughlin said.
She added the pair had been speaking to the British Consulate and were planning to fly out to Valencia when it was safe to travel.
“I’ve got to give DNA so my parents can be identified,” she said.
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The flooding began on Tuesday, following a period of intense rainfall in the region.
The floods have also caused the death of another person from the UK, a 71-year-old man died hours after being rescued from his home on the outskirts of Málaga after heavy rain and hailstorms triggered flash floods in the area.
The man, who has not yet been named, was taken to hospital but died on Wednesday after suffering “several cardiac arrests.”
Emergency workers in Valencia are continuing to search through underground garages, car parks and tunnels in the hope of finding survivors or recovering bodies.
A flooded multi-storey car park in Aldaia is also being searched by rescue teams but no bodies have yet been found.
There has been anger at a perceived lack of warning and insufficient support from Spanish authorities after the floods.
The king and queen of Spain were pelted with mud by angry protesters as they walked through the flood-hit town of Paiporta on Sunday, with objects also thrown at Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Spain’s State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) has placed part of the Catalonia region on red alert for torrential rain, with Barcelona experiencing flooding on Monday morning.
