Spain’s royals return to flood disaster zone for 1st time since being pelted by mud

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Spain's royal couple returned Tuesday to the area devastated by last month's catastrophic flooding for the first time since enraged survivors pelted them and top elected officials with mud on their first visit to the disaster zone.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited the town of Chiva along with a central government minister and the regional leader of eastern Valencia , whom many citizens have slammed for bungling the flood response .

No mud flew this time as Felipe and Letizia shook hands with people at the beginning of their tour of the village. Other spectators took photos.

Chiva, a hilltop town some 30 kilometers (20 miles) to the west of Valencia city, was ripped apart by a crushing wall of water that overflowed a normally dry gorge on the night of Oct. 29. Two of the four bridges spanning the gorge were demolished and several houses were washed away.

The royals, Spain's prime minister and Valencia's leader had attempted to visit a hard-hit neighborhood of Valencia's southern outskirts on Nov. 3 just a few days after the floods. But they had to cut it short when angry locals tossed mud and other objects on their arrival in Paiporta.

The royals withstood the vitriol for half an hour and spoke to several furious residents, but they eventually had to cancel the visit and postpone a subsequent stop planned for later that day in Chiva.

The floods claimed a confirmed 227 lives and destroyed thousands of homes and vehicles. The cleanup effort continues three weeks on.

An investigation is underway following an attempted break-in at a farm on the Windsor Castle property, which reportedly took place while Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton were nearby. According to multiple outlets, two men scaled a six-foot fence on the night of October 13 and used a stolen truck to crash through a security gate at Shaw Farm, one of the working farms on the Windsor Castle grounds. The now-destroyed gate is frequently used by William and Kate, as it is the closest to their Adelaide Cottage residence. The couple are believed to have been home with their children — Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6 — at the time of the incident. King Charles III and Queen Camilla, meanwhile, were away traveling in Scotland and India, respectively. "At around 11.45pm on Sunday October 13, we received a report of burglary at a property on Crown Estate land near to the A308 in Windsor. Offenders entered a farm building and made off with a black Isuzu pick-up and a red quad bike. They then made off towards the Old Windsor/Datchet area," a spokesperson from the Thames Valley Police, responsible for security in the area, told People. Prince William and Princess Kate. Prince William and Kate Middleton's Relationship Timeline Per the spokesperson, "No arrests have been made at this stage and an investigation is ongoing." The Sun previously reported that armed police were removed from the two public entrances of Windsor Castle. An alarm may have been triggered during the burglary, but the clearest sign of trouble was the smashed security gate. Windsor Castle William and Kate, both 42, relocated to Adelaide Cottage in 2022. A source exclusively told Us Weekly at the time that the family of five were looking forward to getting away from the business of Kensington Palace. "The whole family [is] extremely excited to be moving to Windsor, not just because it will bring them closer to [Queen Elizabeth II] but it's a perfect happy medium that brings them closer to London than if they chose to settle full time in Berkshire or Amner Hall," the insider revealed. The arrangement provided the best of both worlds for the royal couple. "They'll still get to enjoy those locations, of course, but by being in Windsor they're only 20 miles from Central London and Buckingham Palace and it's a beautiful environment that's steeped in history and such a special location to call home," the source told Us. William and Kate's kids could also enjoy more of the fresh air. "Charlotte can go horse riding in the open air and George can play football on extensive grounds," a second source revealed, noting that the children were "really excited" about their new school in Berkshire, less than 10 miles from the cottage.