A man from Britain has been hospitalized in Spain after an incident where he was allegedly stabbed with a screwdriver by a passerby who demanded a cigarette and was refused. The victim, identified as Scottish by the police, sustained a punctured lung during the assault in Plaza de Ayuntamiento, located in Valencia’s city center around 4 am on a Saturday. Following the attack, a 45-year-old man, suspected to have a criminal background, was apprehended at the scene as per local reports.
The assault came to light when the screams of a woman, a Uruguayan citizen accompanying the victim, caught the attention of nearby police officers. She informed the authorities that the attacker approached the man to ask for a cigarette, and upon rejection, proceeded to stab him with a screwdriver.
The suspect was described as mentally unstable by the newspaper Las Provincias. The victim was admitted to Doctor Peset University Hospital in Valencia, and his current medical status remains undisclosed.
In a separate incident 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 attack was sudden and brutal, with the assailant reportedly inquiring about the victim’s phone before swiftly stabbing him.
Reports indicated that the suspect was swiftly apprehended within the airport premises, while the victim received immediate medical attention from a SAMU 061 ambulance team. After stabilization on-site, the victim was transferred to a hospital for specialized care.
A reliable source later mentioned that the suspect had no recollection of the incident, attributing it to a possible mental breakdown triggered by a previous theft of his phone at the airport. The victim, an Argentinian resident on the island, had no prior acquaintance with the perpetrator who nearly took his life.