Divers plunged into the river while high-mountain police hot-footed through the rubble in a rush to find five residents of the hamlet of Letur missing after Spain’s apocalyptic floods.
Since the floods ravaged the southeastern Spanish village on Tuesday evening, the Castilla-La Mancha region’s rescuers have been working round the clock to locate them, locked in a race against time.
Two women have already been pronounced dead in the region as a result of the rising waters which have claimed at least 158 victims across the Iberian country.
But with “dozens and dozens” still missing, according to a government minister, that toll looks set to rise.
The five disappeared from Letur -—population 950 — were two council employees in a van likely swept away by the torrent of water and mud, as well as a couple and a woman, Albacete Civil Guard spokesman Jose Amado told AFP.
Nearly a hundred people have been combing an area of two square kilometres (0.8 square miles) of rugged mountain terrain to try and find them.
The search team brings together workers from the Civil Guard, the army, fire brigade, environmental officers, civil protection and the Red Cross.
Besides this array of rescuers, the searchers have access to “two sniffer dogs, a helicopter and three drone teams with thermal imaging cameras operating 24 hours a day”, Amado said.
The incessant din of their propellers buzzing in the blue Castilian sky bore witness to the intensity of the search.
But the overflowing river, which has swept away a section of the historic part of the village, is complicating the work.
