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Spanish pensioner kills herself over eviction

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Spanish pensioner kills herself over eviction
Photo: AFP

A Spanish pensioner killed herself by jumping from the fifth floor of her Madrid apartment on Monday as police tried to evict her.

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The 65-year-old woman did not answer the door to bailiffs or police officers and then leapt from the apartment window, a police spokesman said.   

Pablo Iglesias, leader of the far-left Podemos party, said the woman's name was "Alicia" and noted thousands of families had suffered eviction this year.   

He pledged his party would continue to campaign "to lower rents and guarantee the right to housing". 

According to El Pais newspaper the number of people being evicted from their homes rose 6.1 percent in the second quarter of this year amid high rent rises.

The paper said that more than three in five of some 10,500 evictions cases in that period were for unpaid rent.   

Real estate website Idealista said average rents rose 15.6 percent nationwide in the second quarter of the year compared to 2017.   

The Socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has promised to tackle the growing issue of people being evicted from their homes.

READ MORE: Renting property in Spain: Know your rights as a tenant

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