Rescue teams in central Spain made a grim discovery on Saturday, finding the body of a woman near the Vallehermoso stream, close to Valmojado in the central province of Toledo. This tragic discovery brings the death toll from last weekend’s devastating floods, triggered by torrential rains, to a total of six.
The search for the missing woman, believed to be in her 50s, had been ongoing since severe rainstorms wreaked havoc on central Spain over the weekend. Streets were transformed into raging torrents, and roads and bridges were washed away as the region faced relentless rainfall.
The body was located by a sniffer dog from Spain’s Military Emergencies Unit, approximately 50 meters (165 feet) from the Vallehermoso stream. Guardia Civil police force spokeswoman Antonia Requena described the scene, stating, “It was hidden in undergrowth and mud.”
While the identity of the recovered body still needs to be officially confirmed, authorities strongly believe it to be the missing woman who had disappeared in the same area. Her car, in poor condition, was found on Monday.
Earlier in the week, rescuers had already located the bodies of three men in the central province of Toledo. On Friday, they discovered the remains of two men who had gone missing near the town of Aldea del Fresno, where the Alberche River had overflowed the previous Sunday.
Among those found was a 47-year-old man whose car had been dragged into the swollen river. Emergency services successfully rescued his wife and daughter on Sunday night, while their 10-year-old son was discovered alive the following morning, perched in a tree above the floodwaters.
The weekend storm, which swept across the entire country, had widespread consequences, disrupting travel plans for tens of thousands of people on the final weekend before the start of the new school year. High-speed rail links between the Spanish capital and the southwestern region of Andalusia, as well as the east coast region of Valencia, were among the major transportation routes forced to close. Several Madrid metro stations also faced temporary closures.
