Devastating moment Midland woman learned parents killed in Spain floods

Two daughters of a British couple who died during flooding in Spain have spoken out after learning that their parents had tragically died in the country. Don Turner, 78, and wife Terry, 74, were found in their car on Saturday (November 2) after going missing in Valencia.

The region was hit with heavy downpours last week leading to flash flooding. The married couple, who lived near Pedralba, had moved to Spain a decade ago having "always wanted to live in the sunshine", according to their daughter Ruth O’Loughlin, from Burntwood, Staffordshire.

Ruth was told her parents went missing on Thursday after friends checked on them and found their pets at home but their vehicle gone. Mrs Turner had told friends they were “popping out” to get some gas, she said.

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Mrs Turner had told friends they were “popping out” to get some gas, she said. Ms O’Loughlin told BBC Radio WM she found out that her parent had died after receiving a message from their friends.

She 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."

Speaking to Sky News, the couple’s other daughter, Renee Turner, said the family are angry at the way the situation has been dealt with by the Spanish authorities. She said: "There was no alert – my parents would not have been out with that alert. We are so angry at the slackness of the Spanish authorities in that respect.

"It’s not just our parents, there’s hundreds of people, and they have to be held accountable for that. I think it is diabolical, to be honest. We shouldn’t be sat with anger. They acted far too late. What happened in Valencia was unnecessary."

More than 200 people have been confirmed dead in the flooding disaster so far, with searches continuing for bodies inside houses and the thousands of cars left strewn in the streets. Volunteers and residents are helping thousands of soldiers and police officers clean up the mud and debris left behind by the floods.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman 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."