A British man is recovering in hospital after reportedly being stabbed with a screwdriver in Spain when he refused to give a passerby a cigarette. The incident took place in Valencia’s city centre around 4 a.m. on Saturday at Plaza de Ayuntamiento. Police identified the victim as a Scottish man who suffered a punctured lung in the attack. A 45-year-old suspect with a criminal record was arrested at the scene, according to local media.
Police were alerted by a nearby patrol after hearing a woman’s screams. The woman, a Uruguayan citizen accompanying the victim, told officers that the suspect approached and asked for a cigarette. When the victim refused, the man allegedly attacked him with a screwdriver. The suspect, described by local newspaper Las Provincias as having “altered mental faculties,” was taken into custody. The victim was admitted to Doctor Peset University Hospital, and his current condition remains unknown.
The attack follows a similar stabbing incident in May at Palma Airport in Mallorca, where a man was stabbed in the neck without warning. The assailant in that case was arrested shortly after the attack, and the victim was treated at the scene before being transferred to hospital. Authorities later said the attacker claimed to have no memory of the event, reportedly acting erratically after his own phone was stolen earlier that day.
