A British couple missing in Valencia after floods hit the region have been found dead in their car, their daughter has told the BBC.
Don Turner, 78, and his wife Terry, 74, had not been seen since torrential downpours caused flash floods in eastern Spain.
Their daughter, Ruth O’Loughlin, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, confirmed to the BBC that her parents’ bodies had been found in their car on Saturday.
She had previously told the BBC her parents had moved to Spain a decade ago because they had “always wanted to live in the sunshine”.
She was told they were missing on Thursday after friends checked on them and found their pets at home but their vehicle gone. Terry had told friends they were popping out to get some gas, she said.
O’Loughlin told BBC Radio WM she had found out about the death of her parents, who lived near Pedralba, in a message from one of their friends.
O’Loughlin said: “He said ‘Ruth, get your husband’. I called my husband in and he just said ‘Martin, hold your wife’, and said that they’d been found and they’d been found in their car.
“We still don’t know exactly what happened to them. The only thing we’ve got from this is that they were together. It’s not the way you want your parents to go.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British man and woman who have died in Spain, and are in contact with the local authorities.”
The flooding, which has prompted the central government to deploy 10,000 troops and police officers, has killed 210 people in Valencia, three in Castilla-La Mancha and one in Málaga. There are fears the death toll could rise as the relief efforts reach previously inaccessible areas.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has described the floods as the worst natural disaster in the country’s recent history and said all necessary resources would be mobilised to deal with its aftermath.
Yellow and amber weather warnings were in place for parts of Valencia and neighbouring Catalonia on Monday, with people in the affected areas advised to stay off the roads and keep away from the coast and rivers.
Heavy rain had fallen in the Barcelona area, leading the regional government to issue civil protection alerts and cancel all local train services.
Thousands of UK air passengers are experiencing disruption after Barcelona airport was hit by the storms.
