ALGECIRAS, Spain (AP) — Residents of the Spanish city of Algeciras have described their shock after an attacker with a machete jumped on…
ALGECIRAS, Spain (AP) — Residents of the Spanish city of Algeciras have recounted their shock after a machete-wielding attacker leaped onto a church altar before chasing a victim into a town square, fatally injuring him.
Attacks on two churches by a single assailant on Wednesday night have rocked the town, near the southern tip of Spain across a bay from Gibraltar.
The Interior Ministry said the man killed in the attack was a sacristan, an individual who prepares Mass, at Nuestra Señora de La Palma, while a priest was wounded earlier in another church. The Algeciras City Council said the sacristan’s name was Diego Valencia and identified the injured priest as Antonio Rodríguez.
Manolo González, another sacristan of Our Lady of La Palma, said that he knew Valencia. The attacker climbed up the altar, González said, and Valencia came out “and asked to know what was going on.” He was confronted by a man wielding a machete, whereupon he fled into a public square. The attacker chased him and then inflicted fatal injuries.
Rodríguez remains in serious condition.
Spain’s interior minister will visit the city later today, the ministry said. Flags were flown at half mast in Algeciras, home to a major port with ferry connections to North Africa, and a minute’s silence was to be observed later.
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