“Killers!” the crowd shouted at the royals in the town of Paiporta, incensed at what they say has been too slow and too little of a government response to the disaster.
“Get out! Get out!” they screamed.
Bodyguards opened umbrellas to protect the royals and other officials from the tossed muck. Cops had to step in, several on horseback, to keep back the crowd of several dozen, some wielding shovels and poles. Two of the official group’s bodyguards were injured, including one seen gushing blood from his forehead, according to Spain’s national broadcaster.
King Felipe, with flecks of mud on his face, still insisted on trying to speak with people.
He patted two young men on their backs and shared a quick embrace, with mud stains on his black raincoat.
The queen had small glops of mud on her hands and arms as she spoke to women.
“We don´t have any water,” one woman told her.
Queen Letizia broke into tears sympathetically after speaking to several people, including a woman who wept in her arms.
Officials rushed Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez from the violent scene.
The monarchs and officials called off another stop Sunday at a second hard-hit village, Chiva, about half an hour to the east of Valencia city.
The natural disaster killed at least 205 people in eastern Spain.
The deluge of debris tossed at the monarchs came as Spaniards have been lashing out against their government, which appears overwhelmed and unable to meet the needs of its more than 48 million people.
In addition to the debris attacks, a woman smacked an official car with an umbrella and another kicked it before it sped off.
Many people still don’t have drinking water five days after the floods struck. Internet and mobile phone coverage remains patchy. Most people only got power back Saturday.
Stores and supermarkets are in ruins, and Paiporta, population 30,000, still has many city blocks completely clogged with piles of debris, countless totaled cars and thick layers of mud.
Thousands have had their homes destroyed by the tsunami-like wave of muck from the floods.
The flooding and mud slides had already hit Paiporta when the regional officials issued an alert to mobile phones. It sounded two hours too late.
More anger has been fueled by the inability of officials to respond quickly to the aftermath.
Most of the cleanup of the layers and layers of mud and debris that have buried homes and streets has been done by residents and thousands of volunteers.
“We have lost everything!” someone shouted during Sunday’s upheaval.
Sánchez said recovery efforts won’t be derailed by the incident.
“I want to express all my government’s solidarity and its acknowledgement of the anguish, suffering, uncertainty and the needs of the residents of Paiporta and the region of Valencia,” Sánchez said.
The mud-slinging scene occurred as thousands more Spanish soldiers, national police officers and Civil Guard members arrived or are set to arrive at the disaster sites.
Felipe and Letizia’s public events are usually greeted by crowds of fans.
The 56-year-old Felipe took the throne when his father, Juan Carlos, abdicated in 2014 after he was tarnished by self-made financial and personal scandals.
Felipe tried to turn the royal image around, renouncing his personal inheritance and increasing the financial transparency of the monarchy.
He and the 52-year-old Letizia, a former journalist, dedicate a significant part of their public agenda to cultural and scientific causes.
Visits to sites of national tragedies are also part of the royal duties for monarchs seen as a stabilizing force in a parliamentary monarchy restored following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.
With Post wires
