Walter Finch
THE search for two missing brothers swept away in Valencia’s flooding tragedy two weeks ago has ended in heartbreak.
The bodies of Izan, three, and Ruben Matias, five, have been found in the town of Catarroja, bringing a close to the desperate two week hunt that had gripped the community.
The siblings were found several kilometres from their bedroom where they disappeared, in the town of Torrent.
The tragedy unfolded in a barely believable sequence of events when the deadly DANA storm struck their neighbourhood in the La Curra area on October 29.
A shipping container, dislodged from a passing truck by the fierce storm, crashed into the boys’ bedroom, exposing them to the storm before they were swept away by the raging floodwaters.
An extensive search operation involving Spain’s Military Emergency Unit (UME), local volunteers, and even a specialised Mexican rescue team known as Los Topos Aztecas had been searching continuously since their disappearance.
The Guardia Civil delivered the news to the family on Tuesday night.
READ MORE: Cars are tied to lampposts and wrapped in tape ahead of feared DANA floods in Spain’s Malaga
“We are devastated,” the boys’ aunt told reporters.
“While we had lost hope of finding them alive, it still hurts deeply to have it confirmed”.
She added that the family felt ‘a certain peace’ in being able to finally begin their mourning process.
In a poignant WhatsApp message shared by a family member following the discovery, they wrote: “Our little angels are now watching over us from heaven. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all your shows of affection.”
The discovery of the brothers brings the confirmed death toll from the catastrophic storms that hit Spain’s eastern regions even higher, in what has become the country’s worst natural disasters in over a century.
