A man from the UK has been hospitalized in Spain after an incident where he was allegedly stabbed with a screwdriver by a passerby who requested a cigarette, which the victim refused to give.
The victim, identified as Scottish by authorities, sustained a punctured lung during the attack that occurred at Plaza de Ayuntamiento in the city center of Valencia around 4 am on Saturday. Following the incident, a 45-year-old man, reported to have a criminal history, was apprehended at the scene by local law enforcement.
The assault came to light when two police officers responded to the screams of a woman nearby. The woman, a citizen of Uruguay, was with the victim during the attack and informed the police that the suspect asked for a cigarette, and upon refusal, proceeded to stab the victim with a screwdriver.
Reports from the newspaper Las Provincias described the suspect as an individual exhibiting “altered mental faculties.” The victim was admitted to Doctor Peset University Hospital in Valencia, and his current medical condition is undisclosed.
In a separate incident in May at Palma Airport in Mallorca, a man in his 20s was stabbed in the neck without a clear motive while waiting for a friend. The brutal attack occurred when an individual approached the victim, inquired about his phone, and suddenly stabbed him in the neck with a knife.
Local authorities promptly arrested a suspect inside the airport shortly after the assault, while the victim received initial treatment from a SAMU 061 ambulance at the scene before being transferred to a hospital for specialized medical attention.
Subsequent investigations revealed that the attacker claimed to have no recollection of the incident and allegedly acted out of a misplaced belief that his phone had been stolen, leading to a violent confrontation with the victim.
It was noted that the suspect was identified as one of the homeless individuals at Palma Airport. The victim, an Argentine resident of the island, was at the airport to pick up a family member and had no prior acquaintance with the assailant who nearly took his life.