Islamist attack in Spain: A sacristan dead and at least one seriously injured in a machete attack on different churches in Algeciras

A sacristan has been killed and a priest seriously injured in two different attacks that have taken place in the Cadiz town of Algeciras. The deceased, Diego Valencia, was attacked with a machete after 7:00 p.m. in the church of La Palma, the main church in the town and where he worked as a sacristan, while the wounded man is the parish vicar of the nearby temple of San Isidro, the Salesian priest Antonio Rodríguez, 74, who was attacked minutes before and later transferred to the Punta de Europa hospital. Municipal sources indicate that he is in stable condition and that the mayor has come to speak with him before being transferred by ambulance.

The Prosecutor's Office of the National Court and the duty court, number 6, will take charge of the investigation as a possible crime of terrorism, legal sources inform elDiario.es. The National Court will not take on the case until the report from the National Police, which is investigating the motivation for the attack for which a 25-year-old Moroccan national who was carrying a machete, has been detained. He has been arrested by the Local Police in the vicinity of the Plaza Alta, in the heart of the city, where the church of La Palma is located, and then handed over to the National Police.

The parish priest of La Palma, Juan José Marina, who is also vicar general of Campo de Gibraltar, has told SER that “we have never had any problems. I was in the neighboring parish when in the middle of the celebration someone shouted that there was an attack on La Palma. I came here running and I found this”.

“It was after the celebration of the mass. He's gone straight for him. We had not received threats, except once in a while. Diego thought he was one of those people who suddenly go up to the altar to throw things away, but suddenly I suppose he saw that he had a rather large machete and went for it," the parish priest recounted. Regarding the deceased, he has indicated that “Diego was my feet and my hands. For me Diego has been a faithful man and possibly this death was for me and he has found it ".

Eyewitnesses indicate that the detainee entered the church of San Isidro shouting "for Allah" and threatening the faithful. Three women managed to flee and in a nearby hairdresser's they notified the police. After wounding the Salesian priest who looks after the church, he went to the church of La Palma, where he threw some candles and small crucifixes. Next, he went to the courtyard of the temple, where the brothers of the brotherhood were cleaning the path of the Nazarene. The sacristan, who confronted him and was attacked by the assailant, managed to leave the church but was hit by the assailant outside, where he was fatally injured.

The mayor of Algeciras, José Ignacio Landaluce, has transferred his sorrow, both personally and on behalf of the Municipal Corporation, for the death of Diego Valencia. For this reason, the councilor has decreed a day of official mourning in the city, a day in which the flags will fly at half mast in the municipal buildings, while he has called a concentration of revulsion at 12 hours at the gates of the main temple of the city, as has been transferred by the Algeciras Town Hall in a statement. Likewise, the mayor has conveyed his best wishes for a speedy recovery to the priest of the San Isidro chapel, Father Antonio Rodríguez.

Landaluce has indicated that "we are all dismayed by these events, which have filled us with pain." “We trust in the action of both the State Security Corps and the Justice. Algeciras has always been a city where harmony and tolerance reign, despite the fact that situations like this make it offer an image that does not correspond to reality ”, he concluded.

For his part, the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno, has “vigorously” condemned the “crime”. “Terrible and heartbreaking. They have murdered a sacristan and injured at least one other priest in an attack that took place in Algeciras”, he stated on his official Twitter account. In addition, he has called for "prudence", since "the facts are being investigated." The Andalusian president concluded by stating that "intolerance will never have a place in our society."

Twitter has also been the channel used by the Secretary General of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), Francisco César García Magán, to express his "pain" for this attack. “It is with pain that I received the news of the events in Algeciras. In these sad moments of suffering, we join the pain of the family of the victims and the diocese of Cádiz and ask the God of life and peace for the speedy recovery of the injured,” he said in his tweet.

Likewise, the Islamic Commission of Spain (CIE) has expressed its "deepest condolences" to the victims of the alleged terrorist attack and hopes that this attack "does not disturb social peace" in the municipality. "The CIE expresses its deepest condolences and support to the victims of the attack on the two churches in Algeciras, the believer must feel, in a place of worship, that he is in an oasis of peace that should not be disturbed under any circumstances", The secretary of the Islamic Commission of Spain, Mohamed Ajana, has told Europa Press.

Source: elDiario.es