Spanish police opened fire on a Frenchman, apparently mentally disturbed, who shouted "Allah Akbar" at a toll station near the French border, injuring him in the hip, police said today.
The man, of Moroccan descent, was handling "an object" which police mistakenly took as a weapon, according to Catalan police, who said the terrorist motive had been ruled out.
Shortly after midnight, the man was in a vehicle with French license plates with a woman at the toll booth in the border town of La Hongera, when his "strange" attitude alerted a Guardia Civil patrol, which asked for help from the Mossos d EsEsquadra, according to a Catalan police spokesman.
"He seemed to be handling something inside the car, the police asked him to come out, at the end he came out holding something in his hands and went to the police," he explained, adding that according to the police officers present, "he shouted. Allah Akbar` ”(God is the Greatest).
"The police asked him several times to stop, they shot him in the air to intimidate him but as he continued to move, they shot him in the hip," the spokesman continued. The man "then took off his clothes" and "seemed to have psychological problems," the source said. He was taken to a hospital in Girona, where he underwent surgery, according to this source.
According to the Guardia Civil, his life is "not in danger". The Spanish police limited themselves to stating that "an investigation is underway" in order to clarify the facts. On 17 and 18 August, attacks took place in Barcelona and Cambrils in Catalonia, in northeastern Spain, killing 16 people.