Search for missing in Madeira flash floods

EMERGENCY crews used sniffer dogs yesterday to search through huge piles of debris for at least four people missing in Madeira after flash floods and rockslides killed 42 people on the Portuguese vacation island.

The dogs scoured heaps of boulders, broken trees and other debris blocking streets. Rescue teams dug cars out of head-high mounds of sludge to see if there was anyone inside.

Crews pumped rainwater and mud out of a shopping mall’s underground parking lot in the capital, Funchal, where officials fear more bodies may be found.