UK Edition
Migrant suspected of deadly machete church attack was served deportation order
The 25-year-old Moroccon man was heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” during the attack
The migrant suspected of killing a caretaker and injuring a priest during a machete attack across two Christian churches in Spain had been served with a deportation order last year, officials said.
According to witnesses, the suspect named locally as Yasine Kanzaa, a 25-year-old from Morocco, shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he attacked victims with a machete in the southern Spanish city of Algeciras.
One church official was killed and four others were injured including a priest who was stabbed in the neck and who is said to be in a serious condition in hospital after requiring surgery.
Spain’s National Court is expected to launch an investigation into a suspected terrorist attack, taking over from a local court in Algeciras.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said that the suspect is believed to have acted alone “with no third parties involved in the facts”.
Interior Ministry sources said that Kanzaa had no history of involvement in terrorism in Spain or allied countries. He was served with a deportation order last June, they added.
Photographs of Kanzaa in custody have appeared in the Spanish media, showing the suspect apparently smirking and with specks of blood on his clothes.
According to witness accounts and footage from Algeciras on Wednesday night, the machete-wielding suspect entered two churches in the city centre, attacking churchgoers and church officials as well as smashing religious objects.
After entering San Isidro church, where he left the priest with a gaping neck wound, the suspect walked to the nearby church of Nuestra Señora de La Palma and is said to have stood on the altar.
Diego Valencia, the verger, is reported to have asked the assailant to leave the church, whereupon the suspect attacked him with his machete.
Valencia, who was in his sixties, received a wound to the midriff and was killed with a blow to the head in the square outside the church.
Witnesses said that the suspect shouted “Allahu Akbar” and “Death to Christians” during the attacks, and that he was seen kneeling to pray before being arrested.
Spain’s main Christian and Muslim organisations condemned the attack.
Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-Right Vox party, appeared to blame Spain’s government for the attack for “opening the borders” to undocumented migrants.