A man from the United Kingdom was hospitalized in Spain after an incident where he was reportedly attacked with a screwdriver by a stranger who demanded a cigarette, but he refused. The victim, identified as Scottish by the authorities, sustained a punctured lung during the assault that occurred in Plaza de Ayuntamiento in Valencia’s city center early on a Saturday morning. Following the attack, a 45-year-old man with a criminal record was apprehended at the scene, as per local reports.
The assault unfolded when a woman’s cries caught the attention of nearby police officers. The woman, a citizen of Uruguay, was with the Scottish man when the attacker requested a cigarette. When the man declined, the assailant allegedly used a screwdriver to stab him.
The suspect was described by the newspaper Las Provincias as having “altered mental faculties.” The victim was taken to Doctor Peset University Hospital in Valencia, and his current condition is not disclosed.
In a separate incident, a man in his 20s was stabbed in the neck at Palma Airport in Mallorca without a clear motive in May. According to Spanish authorities, the victim was attacked while waiting for a friend at the airport. The assault, labeled as brutal and unprovoked, involved the attacker questioning the victim about his phone, then suddenly pulling out a knife and stabbing him in the neck.
Following the attack at the airport, a suspect was swiftly arrested on-site, while the victim received initial medical attention from a SAMU 061 ambulance before being transferred to a hospital for specialized care.
A reliable source mentioned that the alleged attacker claimed to have no recollection of the incident, stating that his behavior was triggered by the theft of his phone at the airport, leading him to approach the victim mistakenly. The suspect was reportedly one of the individuals sleeping rough at Palma Airport, while the victim, an Argentinian resident on the island, had no prior acquaintance with his assailant.