Friend pays tribute to pair killed in flash flood

RETIRED holidaymakers who were swept to their deaths in a flash flood in Spain have been described as “the most devoted couple you would ever want to meet”.

Kenneth Hall, 72, and his wife, Mary, 70, from Bootle, Merseyside, were visiting a market in Finestrat, near Benidorm, when torrential rain led a river to burst its banks at around midday on Friday.

Water surged through a dried-up ravine and deluged traders who set up their market stands in the area each week.

Neighbour and close friend Pat Mercer, 62, said the Halls were midway through a fortnight’s holiday to the Costa Blanca resort of Benidorm when the tragedy struck.

She said: “They went to Benidorm twice a year. They loved it out there. They went there for the last 20 years or so. They went to all the shows out there.

“They were fabulous, they were the most devoted couple you would ever want to meet.”

The Halls are understood to have been dragged away in the current as water flowed through the market place, wrecking cars and stalls.