MADRID, November 2. /TASS/. The Spanish government will send an additional 5,000 military servicemen to Valencia to help with relief efforts following recent floods, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters.
"The Spanish government will start this dispatch immediately," he said. "An additional 4,000 troops from military units will arrive in the province of Valencia today and the remaining 1,000 troops will arrive tomorrow morning."
"This is the largest deployment of armed forces that Spain has made in peacetime," the prime minister went on to say.
Sanchez also pledged to send to Valencia 5,000 more members of the Civil Guard and the national police.
The prime minister described the storm that triggered the floods as Spain’s "largest natural disaster in the recent history." According to the official, the death toll from the disaster reached 211.
"Unfortunately, there are people who take advantage of the situation to loot and commit criminal offenses," he said.
According to Sanchez, 82 people have been detained.
On October 29, the Spanish State Meteorological Agency issued weather warnings in various regions of the country due to heavy rains. In the country’s south and east, where rainfall was the heaviest, the danger level was raised to the maximum. Valencia was the hardest-hit by the disaster. The search for missing persons is ongoing.