Spanish Flood Tragedy 'Avoidable'

Last night it was claimed that a Spanish flood tragedy could have been avoided if the town council's had not allowed the flood-hit market place, which is situated on a ravine bed, to be covered with asphalt illegally.

A British couple were swept to their deaths by a torrent of floodwater as they sat at a market stall cafe on a dry 'Rambla' in a Spanish seaside resort of Finestrat, near Benidorm.

Kenneth Hall, 72, and his wife Mary, 70, were drinking coffee in when a 5ft wave swept through following a torrential 25-minute storm in the hills above the town.

The couple were seen clinging to a stall pole with water swirling around their chests but seconds later they were pulled under a parked car as the powerful surge carried them away.

The local council was fined €83,000 (£72,000) in July 2010 and warned by the Spanish Environment Ministry not to hold public events there until further work had been carried out.

It is understood the Liverpool couple were holidaying with relatives in Benidorm.

A market trader Bianca Maria told the Daily Mail today that she and others had previously complained about the risk of flooding because of the position of the market in the ravine.

She said: "What happened was foreseeable but nobody cared."

Other locals claimed that in 2008, following severe floods, the local government promised to build a drainage system but the project was never carried out. A police spokesman in Madrid said: "A judge has opened an investigation into this sudden tragedy."

(BMcC/GK)