The bodies of two young brothers who went missing in the flash floods that struck the eastern Valencia region two weeks ago have been found, the Guardia Civil police confirmed on Wednesday.
Izan and Rubén Matías, aged five and three, were found in separate locations near Catarroja, almost 10 km downstream from their home located in a neighbourhood of Mas del Jutge in the Valencia region, where they went missing when the floods hit on 29 October, a Guardia Civil spokesperson said.
Their aunt Barbara Sastre told Spain’s state TVE last week that the young boys’ mother was working in Valencia and that their father, Victor Matías, was with the boys at the family home when the flood hit at 6.30pm.
She said that Victor, 46, had sat down with his two children in their bedroom to reassure them after the floodwater rose and they started to cry. Seconds later, a torrent of water crashed through the wall sweeping Victor and the boys down the ravine near their house.
‘Everything that was forced down the ravine — cars, trees and a container — hit the bedroom outer wall with a great crash,’ Barbara Sastre said. ‘The three of them were dragged out,’ she told TVE.
The father tried to cling on to them but they were swept away by the tide of water, state news agency EFE reported.
‘The boys were washed away but their father managed to grab hold of a branch trapped in the wall of a nearby farm 200 metres away,’ she said. ‘For four hours he held on until he could be saved.’
Sastre told TVE that the wait for news had left the family ‘destroyed’.
‘It’s been many days and they are very small,’ she had said last week. ‘We know that they are looking for them and there are search parties every day.’
In a message shared on social media, some of their relatives also confirmed their bodies had been discovered. ‘This nightmare of 15 days of madness is over. Thank you to all the volunteers from all over Spain. We are speechless for all the help we have received these days. We will be grateful for the rest of our lives,’ they said.
‘Now you can rest in peace, the two of you together. We fought to the end and never gave up until we heard the news. You have gone very early and very unjustly, but we will never forget you. Rest in peace,’ the statement concluded.
Rescue teams searching for people missing from the storm have intensified their efforts in nearby ravines and the Albufera wetlands as well as at sea using specialist search boats. ALSO READ: Search for those still missing after floods also moves to Valencia coastline.
A new storm warning has put the Valencia region on a fresh alert since Tuesday night, along with other areas along the Spanish coast including the southern city of Malaga, as well as the province of Tarragona in Catalonia. ALSO READ: More storms and flooding close schools and cause train cancellations in Malaga & Tarragona.
#DANACV | Continua la recerca d’Izan i Rubén, els menors de tres i cinc anys desapareguts a #Torrent després del temporal de la DANA. Parlem amb Bárbara Sastre Aitán, tia dels menuts: 🗣️”Estem desolats”.@bondiacv pic.twitter.com/DkqGt6vhQ7
— À Punt (@apunt_media) November 8, 2024
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