Relatives of the 52-year-old man who has been searched since Friday after being dragged by water in a ravine in Paterna (Valencia) have assured that although “it is very difficult” they do not lose hope that he can be found “badly injured but alive.” “.
This has been assured to journalists by Sergio Suárez, the missing man’s first cousin, who is in the place where he is being searched by a large device that is especially focusing the search on the area where the bicycle in which he was circulating was found on Friday when was dragged.
“We are very bad, desperate and very nervous because we want to find our relative as soon as possible. It is going to be complicated because of the terrain but we never lose hope that maybe he will appear alive,” said Sergio Suárez.
He added that he is “a direct relative and you never want him to die in such a dramatic way, we hope that he is alive, that he is badly injured and that they can find him” and he recalled that his cousin Juan Pedro “is an exceptional person, really good and always helping the people around him.
As he explained, the event occurred when he was leaving work around 10:30 a.m. on Friday because he had a medical appointment and about fifteen minutes later he passed through the ravine, where there was a flood of water, and although they told him not to go through, ” “He is from here, he knew the area and it seems that he ventured further than was appropriate and the water took him away.”
For his part, the chief inspector of the National Police Tomás Gago, acting head of the Paterna Police Station and in charge of the search device, has indicated that the work is especially focused on the area where the bicycle was found on Friday.
“We have been searching for two days and so far we have not obtained positive results,” said the agent, who explained that after being advised by the firefighters and the Military Emergency Unit (UME) he decided to request more resources and this morning he will join a GEO diving team from Madrid to operate in areas where the water level is high.
The Paterna City Council’s construction brigade has also been activated since firefighters suspect that sector one, where the bicycle was found, is where the missing man could be buried and it is necessary to remove stones, mud, reeds and weeds in that area. zone.
The head of the device has indicated that yesterday one of the dogs from the UME canine unit “marked there” and although “he was not very insistent, we must rule out the possible location of the body there.”
He has also explained that there is a large device working on the search, in which agents from the National and Local Police, the UME, the Firefighters Consortium or the Generalitat, among others, participate.
He has indicated that the search has been divided into four sectors, which will be expanded towards the new channel of the Turia and the first weir in which there is a significant accumulation of water.
Asked if they ruled out that the body had gone downstream, he indicated that the firefighters had told him that “it is possible but difficult.”
