From The Guardian:
A machete-wielding man killed a sexton and wounded a priest in attacks at two churches in the Spanish city of Algeciras on Wednesday before being arrested, in what authorities are investigating as a possible act of terrorism.
The suspect was arrested and is in the custody of Spain’s national police. The ministry did not identify him.
The attacks began around 7 pm when the armed man went into the San Isidro church and assaulted a priest, who was seriously wounded.
The assailant then went to a second church, the Nuestra Señora de La Palma – a five-minute walk away – where he continued his rampage, assaulting the sexton. The sexton, whose job it is to take care of the church and its maintenance, fled outside where the attacker dealt him the mortal wounds in a public square.
The Algeciras town hall identified the sexton as Diego Valencia and the wounded priest as Antonio Rodríguez. The town hall said Rodríguez had been hospitalised and was in a stable condition.
Local media reported that at least three other people had been wounded.
From Reuters:
Police said the suspect first entered the San Isidro church and attacked Rodriguez. A statement by the Algeciras Salesians said Rodriguez, 74, had been celebrating Eucharist when he was attacked.
The assailant then went into the Nuestra Senora de La Palma church where he damaged property before attacking Valencia, who fled the church but was chased by the suspect, who inflicted further, fatal injuries on him outside, police said in a statement.
The parish priest at Nuestra Senora de La Palma, Juan Jose Marina, told broadcaster SER the suspect went straight for Valencia after the mass had finished, suggesting he might have believed Valencia was the priest.
“Possibly, this death was meant for me and it found him instead,” said a tearful Marina.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed his condolences to the victims of the “terrible attack” on his Twitter account, while the secretary general of Spain’s Episcopal Conference, Francisco Garcia, spoke of his “great pain” on hearing the news.
“These are sad times of suffering, we are united by the pain of the victims’ families and for the Cadiz Diocese,” he said on Twitter.
