A suspected terrorist accused of stabbing three people in Madrid before attacking police shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ reportedly told his mum he was on a mission to ‘kill Christians.’
The 18-year-old, a Spaniard of Moroccan origin, remains in hospital after being tasered and shot by anti-terror police when he holed himself up in a flat following the triple stabbing and violently resisted attempts to arrest him.
A judge at Spain’s central criminal court is now investigating the incidents on Saturday afternoon as suspected Islamic terrorist crimes.
Cops had told the judge the teenager, who is currently under police guard at Madrid’s Gregorio Maranon Hospital, had told his mother that his mission ‘was to kill Christians’ and that he had to ‘cleanse himself’, according to Spanish newspaper El Espanol.
Other reports said detectives were investigating whether the suspect, who has so far been identified only by his first name Mohammed, had consumed the synthetic drug Captago, which is known to have been used by ISIS fighters in Syria to make themselves feel invincible.
Footage published late yesterday showed the teenager being stretchered out of the property in the Madrid neighbourhood of Puente de Vallecas where he was taken into custody on Saturday afternoon.
As well as trying to attack officers with a large knife he was carrying, he is also said to have recited verses from the Quran before being overpowered.
The siege ended around 4.30pm on Saturday with the terror suspect being shot four times by police after their Taser guns failed to stop him, with one bullet perforating his lung and another hitting him in the kidney.
At around 2pm, police received reports that a man had stabbed three people, including an elderly woman, in the Puente de Vallecas neighbourhood in Madrid.
A couple of hours later the suspect’s brother rang police to say he was holed up inside his home with a large knife and was acting very aggressively.
Cops categorised it as an ‘Islamist terrorist incident’ and sent officers from an elite unit specialising in demonstration and anti-terrorist operations to surround the property.
Police union JUPOL said afterwards: ‘We want to show all our support to the companions who acted to neutralise a radicalised young man who had attacked three other people.
‘It was an absolutely proportionate response.’
Although it is being probed as a suspected Islamic terrorist incident, the man held is known to have been under the influence of drugs.
Neighbours speaking to Spanish media have insisted they believe the drugs he had consumed led to him behaving the way he did and have ruled out the idea he is an Islamic extremist.
The stab victims received medical attention but none of their injuries have been described as life-threatening.
