Police are investigating after a lethal machete assault on two church buildings in Spain
Spanish authorities stated they had been investigating what they described as a doable “terrorist” incident after a person wielding a machete attacked a number of folks in two church buildings within the southern port metropolis of Algeciras, killing at the least one individual.
A metropolis spokesperson stated the person attacked clergy at two totally different church buildings – San Isidro and Nuestra Señora de la Palma, about 300 meters (1,000 ft) aside – after 8 p.m. Wednesday in downtown Algeciras. A supply on the Madrid Supreme Court docket stated the incident was being investigated as terrorism.
Police stated the attacker was arrested, and a police supply launched footage exhibiting two officers escorting a person sporting a handcuffed hooded sweatshirt by a police station. The police didn’t disclose his identify or nationality. Native media, together with El Pais newspaper, stated he was a 25-year-old Moroccan.
A spokesman for the town of Algeciras stated the person killed was Diego Valencia, sacristan of Nuestra Señora de la Palmachurch, whereas Honorary Priest of the Diocese of San Isidro, Antonio Rodriguez, was among the many injured and is in severe situation.
An unknown variety of folks had been additionally injured. El Mundo newspaper reported that 4 folks had been wounded within the assault.
Police stated the suspect first entered San Isidrocorse and attacked Rodriguez. A press release from Algeciras Salesians stated Rodriguez, 74, was celebrating Holy Communion when he was attacked.
Police stated in an announcement that the attacker then headed to Nuestra Señora de la Palmacherche, the place he broken property, earlier than attacking Valencia, who fled the church however was chased and fatally wounded exterior by the suspect.
The parish priest of Nuestra Señora de la Palma, Juan Jose Marina, instructed station SER that the suspect went straight to Valencia after mass was over, suggesting he could have thought Valencia was the priest.
“It’s doable that this loss of life was meant for me and I discovered it as an alternative,” Marina stated tearfully.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed his condolences to the victims of the “horrible assault” on his Twitter account, whereas Francisco Garcia, Secretary Common of the Spanish Convention of Bishops, spoke of his “excessive ache” upon listening to the information.
“These are unhappy occasions of struggling, we’re united by the ache of the households of the victims and the Diocese of Cadiz,” he stated on Twitter.
Jose Ignacio Landalos, the mayor of Algeciras, declared a day of mourning within the metropolis on Thursday and a rally exterior Nuestra Señora de la Palmachorchat at midday.
Earlier on Wednesday, two folks had been killed and several other others injured when a 33-year-old stateless Palestinian attacked them with a knife on a regional prepare touring between Kiel and Hamburg in northern Germany, authorities stated.
(Reuters)
