Spain's King Felipe VI and top government officials were pelted with mud by a crowd of enraged flood survivors during the first visit by the country's leaders Sunday to the epicenter of the nation's deadliest natural disaster in living memory.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was evacuated from the scene, according to Spanish broadcaster RTVE, when the official contingent started to walk the mud-covered streets of Paiporta, one of the hardest hit areas where over 60 people perished and thousands of lives were shattered.
Police had to step in, with some officers on horseback, to keep back the crowd of several dozens who hurled mud and wielded shovels and poles threateningly.
"Get out! Get out!” and “Killers!” the crowd shouted among other insults. Bodyguards opened umbrellas to protect the royals and officials from the barrage of muck.
After being forced to seek protection, the king, with flecks of mud on his face, remained calm and made several efforts to speak to individual residents. One person appeared to have wept on his shoulder. He shook the hand of a man.
“They knew it, they knew it, and yet they did nothing,” one young man shouted at the king while waving a finger in his face.
One young woman swatted a bodyguard with a long pole.
It was an unprecedented incident for a royal house that takes great care to craft an image of a monarch who is liked by the nation. But the public rage over the haphazard management of the crisis came to a boil on Sunday.
Queen Letizia and regional Valencia President Carlo Mazón were also in the contingent. The queen had small glops of mud on her hands and arms as she spoke to women.
#spain #flood #kingfelipe #queenletizia
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