Special operations soldier dies after submachine gun accident in Spain

A special operations soldier, Adrián Roldán Marín, aged 30, from Sant Joan D'Alacant, was killed in a training accident on Thursday, Spain's Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

The incident happened while the military man was cleaning a submachine gun after completing an exercise at the Rabasa barracks in Alicante.

As news outlet TodoAlicante reported the Guardia Civil received an alert at 1.21pm. Medical services sent to the Alférez Rojas Navarrete complex were unable to save the young man.

Roldán joined the army in May 2018 at the Nº1 Training Centre in Cáceres. Since April 2021 he had been assigned to the Special Operations Group Valencia III of the Special Operations Command.

A statement said the army's priority is focused on caring for the family and colleagues of the deceased at this time.

This is the fifth fatal accident in the last five years suffered by this elite unit of the army. In 2018, Eduardo García Molinero lost his life after being hit by an armoured vehicle. Three years later, a 33-year-old female soldier from Extremadura, Débora Grau Serra, died during a training exercise in Santa Pola. In October 2022 Gavalda Macías died when a vehicle overturned. And in February 2023 Alejandro Jiménez, a 22-year-old Mallorcan legionnaire, died from a gunshot wound during shooting practice in Agost, Alicante.