A suspected Islamic terrorist facing deportation back to Morocco stormed two churches in southern Spain on Wednesday, hacking up a priest in one and butchering a sacristan in the other.
Authorities are looking into whether the brutal attacks — during which the illegal alien reportedly screamed out “Allah is great” — are acts of terrorism.
What are the details?
Illegal alien Yasin Kanza, 25, reportedly rushed into the church of Maria Auxiliadora y San Isidro in the city Algeciras around 7 p.m., armed with a machete. Inside, the suspect savagely attacked 74-year-old priest Fr. Antonio Rodríguez, who had been celebrating the Eucharist, reported the Associated Press.
The priest survived gaping stab wounds to the neck.
Mayor José Antonio Landaluce indicated that the attacker’s blade narrowly missed the priest’s spinal cord, reported the Straits Times.
Spanish news outlet El Mundo reported that the Salesian priest, now in recovery, called for others to “never lose heart,” noting that God “animates our life.”
The suspected terrorist left the church bloodied, then sought out another nearby: Nuestra Señora de La Palma. There, the attacker found Diego Valencia, a sacristan responsible for caring for the church and preparing the altar for mass.
According to an interior ministry statement, the suspect began damaging the altar and the interior of the church when, according to fellow sacristan Manolo González, Valencia came over to inquire about the source of the commotion.
El Mundo reported that Kanza demanded that parishioners inside the church abandon the Catholic religion.
Recognizing the attacker for what he was, Valencia fled to the public square. The suspected terrorist caught up with him, hacking him to death.
The Telegraph indicated that Valencia, a man in his sixties, was killed ultimately with a machete blow to the head.
Agencia EFE reported that Kanza shouted “death to Christians” and “Allah is great” while hacking away at Spanish citizens.
The suspected terrorist was arrested soon after killing Valencia in the public square and is presently in the custody of Spain’s National Police.
The Associated Press noted that Algeciras is a port city where boats containing illegal aliens from North Africa — including Morocco, where 99% of the population is Sunni Muslim — frequently dock.
Santiago Abascal, leader of the right-wing Vox party, pinned blame on the leftist Spanish government for enabling the atrocities to happen by “opening the borders” to illegal aliens.
Abascal tweeted, “He entered Spain illegally, he had an expulsion order, he was under surveillance for jihadism, he was a squatter. How many will there be like him in Spain? The human trafficking mafias and the politicians who open their borders and shower them with subsidies cannot hide their responsibility.”
Spain’s socialist president, Pedro Sánchez, wished a “speedy recovery” to the injured and expressed his condolences to the relatives of the sacristan who “died in the terrible attack.”
The same day this attack took place, a 33-year-old Palestinian migrant allegedly stabbed nine people on a train in Germany, traveling from Kiel to Hamburg. The attacker slaughtered a 16-year-old girl and a 19-year-old man, reported ABC News.
The attacker reportedly had been previously convicted of sexual assault and dangerous bodily harm, along with other crimes.
AFP reported that this attack is yet another conforming to a pattern of similar attacks all throughout Europe.
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