Alex Trelinski
THE Policia Nacional has arrested 60 people- including several children- for looting shops in flood-affected areas of Valencia province.
The police said that officers had recovered a ‘multitude of stolen items’ including food, water, shoes, and hundreds of luxury items.
Sources said the round-up started on Wednesday and some of the arrests were linked to thefts from a shopping centre in Aldaia along with detentions in Paiporta and Catarroja.
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The arrest figures will rise as Guardia Civil numbers are yet to be included.
Surveillance has been stepped after an upturn in robberies from stores as well as properties and even abandoned cars and trucks.
The Guardia said that pilfering started last Tuesday on the first day of the storm in municipalities such as Utiel, where ‘early in the morning officers were deployed to guard shops and stop people’.
They confirmed reports from the Policia Nacional that there were problems in Aldaia, where we ‘were especially concerned’.
In Valencia de La Torre, residents reported shops and homes being looted.
One person said: “In the Consum supermarket they have taken everything: every last egg and in Cajamar, they have stolen all the money.”
“At the optician due to open next week, they did not even leave a pair of glasses.”
One report said the local tobacconist was spared because he was trapped in the premises which would have put off potential looters.
Homes were not spared however with a La Torre resident saying: “They have stolen everything- jewellery, money… even the sheets.”
Despite the fact that officers are concentrating on rescue and safety work, the Guardia said they are also ‘working on surveillance against possible robberies, both in homes and in shops and on the highway.”
“We are doing everything as citizen security is also at stake at the moment,” police sources said.
“We are fully aware that when such a large misfortune happens, people appear who have no scruples,” they added.
