Churches in Spain: what we know about the deadly attack in Algeciras

A sexton was killed and a priest seriously injured in a machete attack on two churches, located a few hundred meters from each other, in Algeciras, a port city in southern Spain, on Wednesday evening.

The profile of the suspect takes shape.

What happened ?

According to the Ministry of the Interior, this young Moroccan - whom a photo taken after his arrest shows the full beard and smiling - entered after 7 p.m. "the church of San Isidro in Algeciras and attacked the priest, armed with a machete, seriously wounding him".

“He then went to the Nuestra Señora de La Palma church, where he attacked the sexton, after causing various damages”.

The sexton, Diego Valencia, then "managed to get out of the church, but was caught outside by the assailant, who gave him several mortal wounds", continued the ministry.

Who are the victims ?

The priest, Antonio Rodríguez, was injured "in the neck" and hospitalized, while the sexton died in the street, according to a spokeswoman for the emergency services.

Who is the suspect?

The alleged perpetrator of the attack is a 25-year-old Moroccan.

He was immediately arrested, and was not known to the Spanish security services, the government said Thursday.

“An expulsion procedure had been opened in June for irregular situation” against the suspect, but “as it is an administrative procedure (…), its implementation is not immediate”, underlined the ministry. of the Interior in a message to the press.

He had been in Spain for about a year.

He had "no criminal or terrorism history in Spain or in allied countries" and was not monitored by Spanish services "neither in recent days nor before", the ministry continued.

A security source confirmed to AFP that he was not on file for radicalism in Spain or France.

According to several media, this young Moroccan lived very close to the attacked churches.

According to El Païs which evokes police sources, the suspect could suffer from a certain type of mental disorder.

A terrorist attack?

The government has so far not qualified the nature of the attack.

For its part, the public prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday evening the opening of an investigation into "presumed acts of terrorism" which was entrusted to the Madrid court of the National Audience, in charge of the most sensitive cases - in particular terrorism files. .

“We are investigating.

A search of the home of the alleged perpetrator took place today (…) and its outcome could obviously determine the nature of the facts, terrorist nature or any other nature”, underlined the Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska from Stockholm, where he was attending a meeting with his European counterparts.