Galicia: Man arrested after firing shotgun in a supermarket

A RESIDENT of Ourense in Galicia, northwestern Spain, burst into his local Mercadona supermarket carrying a double-barrelled shotgun and shouting unintelligible phrases at around 2pm on Wednesday, January 11.

Sources have confirmed that the 35-year-old man, who is known to suffer from psychological issues, did not “scream Allahu Akbar” as stated by some media outlets, nor was he wearing a “suicide vest.”

Carlos Perez, an off-duty civilian officer who was first on the scene, explained that the man first shot at a sign in the frozen food section before taking aim at the glass entrance door.

Mercadona sources said that he shot at the window and wine section before eating a banana, smoking a cigarette and throwing himself to the floor.

Shortly afterwards, several National Police patrols arrived at the scene and arrested him, discovering small quantities of gunpowder and petrol in his rucksack.

No-one was hurt, and both police and Mercadona staff have said that they could not understand his words, although he may have been speaking in the Basque language since he is originally from Bilbao.

One officer said: “He was shouting something, but it wasn’t Arabic.”

The gunman did apparently take some bank notes from the till, but police are not currently considering either robbery or terrorism as the motive, with witnesses describing his manner as “mentally unbalanced.”