Court raises official Valencia flood death toll to 234 with new case

A new case in the official count

The investigating judge at the Court of First Instance in Catarroja raised the official number of people killed by the Valencia flood of 29 October 2024 to 234. She issued the order on Friday, 30 October 2026. The new case is a man from Paiporta, aged 73, who was hurt when water entered his house and who died almost two months later at Valencia's General Hospital. The Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) published the decision in a statement.

Medical timeline

His children told the court that the house took in 1.70 metres of water during the flood. They also said their father had a foot wound that he did not have before, and that in the following days his toes swelled and took on a purplish colour. On 18 November he was admitted to hospital, five days after diarrhoea, vomiting and fever began. He died there on 26 November from infectious endocarditis caused by the E Faecalis bacterium.

Forensic report and the judge's finding

The forensic report submitted to the court said that no single, direct causal link could be established between the E Faecalis endocarditis and the events of 29 October. It also found that the foot wound was not sufficiently documented, but accepted that the wound could have become the route of infection if he had come into contact with contaminated surfaces. The judge weighed that medical report against the testimony of the man's relatives, who had been heard at the request of the prosecutor's office. She concluded that a causal relationship between the flood and the death does exist, and she identified contact with contaminated surfaces as the decisive element.

What the ruling changes

The order moves the official death toll of the flood to 234. The TSJCV statement presented the decision as the judge's resolution of the case, based on the forensic report and the family testimony. The figure reflects only the cases the court has formally recognised, so it applies to the court's own count rather than to any separate estimate.