The attack occurred on the evening of January 25 when an axe-wielding man attacked several people at the San Isidro and Nuestra Senora de La Palma churches, about 300 meters apart, in the port city of Algeciras. The incident left a church caretaker dead and a priest seriously injured. Police arrested the perpetrator at the scene. Prosecutors are investigating the attack as a terrorist attack.

A spokesman for the Spanish Interior Ministry said the suspect has so far been identified as a 25-year-old Moroccan man with no criminal or terrorist record in Spain or its allies, and was not under police surveillance before the attack. The deportation process began in June last year and is currently underway, the spokesman said.

Police searched the suspect’s home in the early hours of January 26 and are analyzing all the evidence and material seized. The suspect will appear in court in the capital Madrid later today.

The port of Algeciras in Andalucia is the main entry point for Moroccans to Spain. In 2004, the southwestern European country suffered a series of bombings on the Madrid metro system, killing 192 people and injuring more than 1,800. This was the deadliest attack in the continent's history. According to a Supreme Court ruling, the perpetrators had ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Moroccan Islamic Militant Group. In 2017, a series of attacks on Las Ramblas boulevard in Barcelona killed 16 people and injured nearly 200./.

Nguyen Hang