Thousands protest in Spain’s Valencia over handling of deadly floods

Thousands of people have demonstrated in Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to protest the authorities’ handling of one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades and call for accountability.

Large crowds gathered in the central part of the city on Saturday night, with some clashing with riot police in front of Valencia’s city hall. Police were filmed using batons to beat back protesters who were marching towards the seat of the regional government.

In Spain, regional governments are charged with handling civilian protection and can ask for extra resources from the national government in Madrid.

The current regional leader is Carlos Mazon of the conservative Popular Party, who is facing calls for resignation after his administration failed to issue flood alerts to citizens until after the water was filling people’s homes.

Mazon has defended his handling of the crisis, arguing that the magnitude of the crisis was unforeseeable and that authorities in Madrid failed to notify his administration adequately and on time.

But Spain’s weather agency issued a red alert, the highest level of warning, for bad weather at approximately 7:30am local time (06:30GMT) on Tuesday morning, more than 12 hours earlier than Mazon’s administration finally sent out alerts to people’s cellphones.