The
5/13/2011, 01:51 PM
Happy Friday the 13th!
British woman beheaded in busy Tenerife supermarket (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8512540/British-woman-beheaded-in-busy-Tenerife-supermarket.html)
A British woman has been beheaded in a supermarket on the Spanish resort island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spanish authorities have announced.
Officials in Tenerife identified the victim as a 62-year-old British woman.
The suspect, believed to be a 28-year-old homeless Bulgarian man with a police record, reportedly grabbed a knife from the supermarket shelves and attacked the unarmed woman without saying a word.
He was detained by security guards after he ran out of the supermarket in a shopping centre in the resort town of Arona with the head in his hands.
Security staff chased the man and rugby tackled him. The events took place shortly after 10am (0900 GMT).
Manuel Reveron, a local a councillor said: "Apparently this gentleman without any motive or any reason, although for this there is no reasoning, entered the shop and then cut this woman's neck and took the head in his hand outside up to the sidewalk."
An expatriate Briton, Colin Kirby, said: I thought someone had fainted or something and walked on, then I heard screaming and looked behind and saw a scruffy, unkempt man of about mid 20s holding a head by the hair, he said.
It had blood on it and I thought at first it was a sick joke stunt, the man was muttering and shouting and more people started screaming as I quickened my pace.
Another witness told broadcaster Cadena Ser that he saw the man drop a bloodstained woman's head on the pavement after coming out of the shop.
"I was parking my car outside the supermarket and I saw this man running out with something bloody in his hands," the witness said.
"It was a head. He had it in his hands. The security guards chased him and threw him to the floor and overpowered him."
The victim, who has not yet been identified, was working at the mini-market.
Dominica Fernandez, a government official, said the suspect had "chosen his victim by chance".
The suspect was reportedly discharged from a hospital in February having received treatment for violent behaviour.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are aware of reports of the death of a British national in Tenerife and are urgently investigating."
British woman beheaded in busy Tenerife supermarket (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8512540/British-woman-beheaded-in-busy-Tenerife-supermarket.html)
A British woman has been beheaded in a supermarket on the Spanish resort island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spanish authorities have announced.
Officials in Tenerife identified the victim as a 62-year-old British woman.
The suspect, believed to be a 28-year-old homeless Bulgarian man with a police record, reportedly grabbed a knife from the supermarket shelves and attacked the unarmed woman without saying a word.
He was detained by security guards after he ran out of the supermarket in a shopping centre in the resort town of Arona with the head in his hands.
Security staff chased the man and rugby tackled him. The events took place shortly after 10am (0900 GMT).
Manuel Reveron, a local a councillor said: "Apparently this gentleman without any motive or any reason, although for this there is no reasoning, entered the shop and then cut this woman's neck and took the head in his hand outside up to the sidewalk."
An expatriate Briton, Colin Kirby, said: I thought someone had fainted or something and walked on, then I heard screaming and looked behind and saw a scruffy, unkempt man of about mid 20s holding a head by the hair, he said.
It had blood on it and I thought at first it was a sick joke stunt, the man was muttering and shouting and more people started screaming as I quickened my pace.
Another witness told broadcaster Cadena Ser that he saw the man drop a bloodstained woman's head on the pavement after coming out of the shop.
"I was parking my car outside the supermarket and I saw this man running out with something bloody in his hands," the witness said.
"It was a head. He had it in his hands. The security guards chased him and threw him to the floor and overpowered him."
The victim, who has not yet been identified, was working at the mini-market.
Dominica Fernandez, a government official, said the suspect had "chosen his victim by chance".
The suspect was reportedly discharged from a hospital in February having received treatment for violent behaviour.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are aware of reports of the death of a British national in Tenerife and are urgently investigating."