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Machete attack in Spanish churches leave one dead and priest injured

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Machete attack in Spanish churches leave one dead and priest injured
Police secure the area where a man was killed in Algeciras, southern Spain, on January 25, 2023. Photo: STRINGER / AFP

A church official was killed and a priest seriously wounded late Wednesday when a man wielding a machete stormed two churches in southern Spain, the government said.

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The southern Spanish city of Algeciras was reeling Thursday, a day after a machete-wielding assailant stormed into two churches killing a verger and badly injuring a priest.

Spanish prosecutors immediately opened a terror probe following the incident near the city's port on Wednesday evening.

The attacker was arrested at the scene, with a police source identifying him as a 25-year-old Moroccan man.

"Just after 7:00 pm, a man entered the church of San Isidro in Algeciras, where, armed with a machete, he attacked the priest, leaving him seriously wounded," an interior ministry statement said.

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"Subsequently, he entered the church of Nuestra Señora de La Palma in
which, after causing damages, he attacked the verger."

The verger, Diego Valencia, "managed to get out of the church, but was
caught by the attacker outside and sustained mortal injuries," it said, identifying the weapon he used as a machete.

The two churches are several hundred metres apart and located in an area very close to the port in this town of around 120,000 residents.

The emergency services said the priest had sustained injuries to the neck.

His parish identified him as 74-year-old Antonio Rodríguez and said he had been celebrating the Eucharist at San Isidro church when he was attacked, describing his condition as "serious but stable".

A police source told AFP the assailant was wearing a long robe and had "shouted something" as he carried out the attack.


Attacker shouted, threw icons

Eyewitnesses at Nuestra Señora de La Palma told local media the attacker ran into the building at around 7:30 pm and shouting, began throwing icons, crosses and candles to the floor.

The mayor of Algeciras has declared a day of mourning and called residents to gather for a demonstration of condemnation at midday in front of the church where the verger died.

In the town, which hosts the main port for ferries and other vessels travelling between Spain and Morocco, residents reeled from shock.

Juan José Marina, the parish priest of Nuestra Señora de La Palma, told public radio the idea of such an attack was unimaginable "because our ties with the Islamic world in Algeciras are good and we've never had any sort of problem".

"It just defies all logic," agreed Dris Mohamed Amar, spokesman for the
local Muslim community, who was speaking on the same radio programme, saying
he hoped "it was an isolated case by a demented lunatic and not something
premeditated".

'Reprehensible acts'

"I send my deepest condolences to the families of the verger who died in this terrible attack," Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on Twitter, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured.

Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the right-wing Popular Party said he was "appalled" by the incident.

Police have not commented on the possible motives, or political and religious affiliation of the attacker.

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