The delegate of the Government of Castile-La Mancha in Albacete reported Tuesday afternoon the discovery of a fourth body among the remains of sediment generated by the flood that devastated Letur a week ago. There is still no confirmation of his identity, but it is believed to be a man, according to initial information provided by Pedro Antonio Ruiz Santos.
The body was located at the mouth of the Segura River stream, about five kilometers from the town. It is an area where all the sediments from the October 29 flood have accumulated which, in three waves, left six people missing. Four have already been located, but two are not identified.
Nearly 100 soldiers are dedicated to searching for missing people, with the support of canine units. “The research is very complex,” he commented, and extends over terrain where there are up to two meters of sediment, on which the machines work, in addition to the support of the boats.
Ruiz Santos revealed that authorization was requested from the Hydrographic Confederation of Segura to reduce the flow of the river. Concretely, it went from 1.5 m3 per second to 0.75 m3 per second “to work faster”.
Efforts continue to identify another body
Monday afternoon, the third body of a person whose identity is being analyzed was located. The Civil Guard reported throughout Tuesday that there were “doubts” about the identity of the body found about 500 meters from the city boulevard. It was initially reported to be a man, specifically Jonathan, a young man who went missing with his partner. During a second check by the Civil Guard, “doubts arose” as to his identity.
The Colonel-in-Chief of the Civil Guard, Jesús Manuel Rodrigo, indicated that these “reasonable doubts” arose during the application of the corresponding protocol and that more expert testimony will be needed to confirm who it is.
“Until the identity is confirmed, we cannot say exactly whose body was found.” Rodrigo adds that around forty Civil Guard soldiers are working in the area. Three other missing people are still being sought in the city.
The delegate of the Community Council of Albacete, Pedro Antonio Ruiz Santos explained that the body was found under “a lot of mud and materials” and that the remains were sent to the Forensic Anatomy Institute of Madrid for carry out a DNA analysis.
One of the canine units working in the city gave the notice Monday evening that led to the discovery of the human remains. Work then intensified in the area.
“The search for missing people is the priority,” said Ruiz Santos, who explained from the morning that the work was done manually on the construction site because machines could not access it.
During these first hours, the four families of the missing people were gathered so that they could be present and the discovery could be communicated to them. “This is not going to stop, the work continues, we have increased the device to 17 machines and the canine unit continues to work constantly and we want to convey this news to you so that there is no uncertainty,” concluded Ruiz Santos.
After the first hours of the flood, a 92-year-old woman, Dolores, was next to the city’s sewage treatment plant. Later, on Sunday, November 3, the body of one of the people wanted in the city was found. It was a 70-year-old woman whose body was found 12 kilometers from the town of Albacete. The woman, Antonia, was at home, located in one of the places where the torrent of water that should have carried her away passed. Added to his death is that of Dolores, a 92-year-old neighbor whose lifeless body was found in the first hours following the flood.
In the city, we are still looking for two people, a woman and a man, still missing.
Access to the historic center and study of the houses
At the same time, the president of the Provincial Delegation of Albacete, Santi Cabañero, highlighted today that the Institution’s Architecture Department continues to work in the city, where ten houses with structural damage were identified after the ‘flood. Five have already been shot.
Since Tuesday, Cabañero explained, the team of professionals has been able to access new areas of the city to assess the situation. “There is a lot of debris inside the houses. There are many caves inside the houses themselves and this work is going to be meticulous and slow,” he said. It is for this reason that he warned that “no one can enter a house if it is not safe” and that for the moment, only architects can enter areas that were not yet accessible .
