Around 140 officers from the Catalan police force are searching for a man suspected of stabbing five people in broad daylight in the city of Lleida, near Barcelona.
The suspect, who is described as a 35-year-old male with dark olive skin wearing a striped shirt and green Bermuda shorts, is alleged to have attacked the five people around 17:30 local time (15:30 GMT) on Monday.
El Mundo reports that the search has been narrowed down to the neighbourhoods of Balàfia and Pardinyes.
As officers continues to look for the suspect, investigators have been examining the scenes of the attacks and have managed to pull fingerprints from the handle of the knife left in the shoulder of one of the victims. The victims are also reported to have had a good look at their attacker.
Meanwhile, Mayor of Lleida, Angel Ros, said that he fears the crime may have been motivated by xenophobia, with all bar one of the victims were foreigners, but the man did not exchange any words with his victims during the attacks.
A 60-year-old Pakistani citizen is described as being in a critical condition and is being treated at the Vall d’hebron Hospital in Barcelona. The four other victims, which include a South American, a Chinese person, a Moroccan, and a Spaniard, are being treated at the Hospital Arnau de Vilanova of Lleida and are described as being in a stable condition.
