More than half the 'Dana' storm victims in Valencia were aged over 70

The 'Dana' storm hit the elderly hard in Spain's Valencia region. More than half of those who died were over 70 years of age, and there were also nine children among the victim total. The data integration centre (CID), which was set up in the wake of the storms and the subsequent floods that affected Valencia province on 29 October, has carried out a detailed analysis of the 216 fatalities recorded so far in this catastrophe.

The most significant findings of the report are that 131 of the fatalities were males and 85 females, 104 of those killed were aged 70 or over - 15 were in their nineties - and 26 of them were foreigners of 11 different nationalities.

Of the 216 confirmed fatalities, nine were children, seven of whom were under the age of 11, according to the CID. In addition, 10 of the deceased were between the ages of 20 and 30.

The municipalities where most fatalities have been recovered are Paiporta (45), Catarroja (25), Valencia (16), Alfafar (15), Massanassa (11) and Benetússer, Torrent and Picanya (10 in each case). These towns do not necessarily correspond to the localities where the victims were registered as residents.

The CID is a technical body made up of police, forensic and data specialists. Its main function is to gather and oversee the different identification reports carried out by the different institutions on deceased persons for events where multiple victims have occurred, by virtue of royal decree (RD 32/2009).

This centre is the only one empowered by this royal decree to provide the media and the public with official figures. All information is released via the communications office of the High Court of Justice for the Valencian province on the medical or judicial forensic investigations surrounding this incident.

The breakdown by nationality of the foreign nationals killed is as follows: 9 Romanians, 4 Moroccans, 4 Chinese, 2 UK nationals, and the remaining victims (7) are from Ecuador, Venezuela, Ukraine, Holland, Tunisia, Colombia and Paraguay.

Up to 20 judicial bodies, belonging to ten different judicial districts (Sueca, Torrent, Quart de Poblet, Mislata, Valencia, Llíria, Catarroja, Alzira, Carlet and Requena) have opened up preliminary proceedings on the deaths of the 216 victims counted so far.

Of the municipalities where bodies were found and removed (besides those previously listed), they are: Sedaví (9), Chiva (8), Cheste and Quart de Poblet (7), Utiel, Aldaia and Ribarroja (6), Godelleta (4), Albal, Algemesí and Pedralba (3), Guadassuar and l'Acúdia (2), and in Alaquàs, Alzira, Buñol, Loriguilla, Silla, Sot de Cheta and Sueca they found one victim in each locality.