Spain floods: Heartbreaking photo shows man with baby and wife killed in Valencia disaster

Antonio Tarazona, 59, watched on helplessly as his wife and three-month-old baby girl were swept away on the roof of the family car during the devastating floods in Valencia

A father-of-three has been left heartbroken after he watched his tiny tot and her mum being swept to their deaths in the devastating Spanish floods.

Antonio Tarazona, 59, made an emotional TV appeal for information on the whereabouts of his wife Lourdes Maria Garcia, 34, and their three-month-old baby girl Angeline after witnessing them being swept away on the roof of the family car. Hours later, it was tragically confirmed the pair had been found dead.

At least 95 people died in the flash floods on Tuesday, though authorities expect this figure to rise further. Antonio's said on social media late last night: “Unfortunately they’ve just confirmed to us that Lourdes and the baby have been found dead this morning. Thanks to the appeal a police officer who found them contacted us and confirmed the terrible news. Rest in peace. There are two more angels in the sky.”

Hours before the horror discovery, Antonio described the last time he saw his youngest child and wife alive. They were driving back to their home in Paiporta near Valencia from a visit to see Angeline’s grandmother, but ended up trapped in a raging torrent of floodwater.

In an emotional TV appeal the youngster’s dad said before it emerged she and her mum had been found dead: “I managed to get out of the car and when I tried to get hold of our baby, the current took me and I hit something. The car went in another direction and I saw my wife with our baby shouting for help from the roof, but that’s the last time I saw them.

“In 15 minutes we went from driving on a dry road to seeing all the cars floating. Initially the car was rammed against a traffic sign, but then it moved and I saw how the force of the water carried them away.”

The drama happened around 9pm on Tuesday. The family’s nanny Clara Andres told Spanish daily ABC how Lourdes had called her after becoming separated from her husband in a desperate last phone call.
She said: “Lourdes told me she would try to hold out as long as she could, for her daughter, and asked me to look after her other two children. She feared the worst.”

The other two kids, named locally as Bajix and Sofia, are thought to be 13 and 10 respectively. Clara Andres said: “Luckily they’re okay.” Their dad, who was rescued unharmed in the early hours of Wednesday morning after clinging to a fence, was taken to a local sports centre which had been opened as an evacuation centre.

Nearly half the 92 deaths reported in Valencia's provisional figures occurred in Paiporta. Paiporta’s mayor Maria Isabel Albalat Asensi confirmed she expected the casualty figures to rise, saying: “The victims are going to be in their dozens. There were a lot of people in their homes which in Paiporta are single-storey and water has entered them and they haven’t been able to get out.

“There are a lot of people who went to move their cars and never came back. The town on the outskirts of Valencia, now at the epicentre of one of Spain’s worst natural disasters ever, is home to just over 20,000 people. The search for more bodies continued today. Spain’s Defence Minister Margarita Robles said she hoped survivors could be found as well.