Spain finds flood victim one year after tragedy

Spanish authorities on Thursday said they had found the body of a 56-year-old man who died after being swept away in floods in the eastern Valencia region last year, the country's deadliest such disaster in decades.

DNA analysis confirmed that a corpse found on Tuesday in the Turia river belonged to one of three people reported missing since the October 29, 2024 tragedy that killed more than 230 people, a Valencia court said in a statement.

The victim, like the two other missing people, "had already been declared legally dead" and so the death toll had not increased, the court added.

The water had dragged the body some 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the town of Pedralba to the municipality of Manises outside the regional capital Valencia, Spain's third-largest city.

A state funeral will take place in the city on October 29 to mark the anniversary of the disaster, which raised serious questions about the adequacy of alert systems and the emergency response.

Campaigners have taken to the streets every month, demanding the resignation of the head of the regional government Carlos Mazon over his handling of the floods, with the next demonstration scheduled for Saturday.

Regional authorities insist they did not have the information needed to warn people sooner.