Malaga healthcare worker needs 30 stitches after having face slashed by stranger

A 45-year-old healthcare worker suffered a brutal attack by a stranger a few minutes before the start of his night shift in Malaga's Cristo de la Epidemia district on 24 June.

The unknown suspect, who the victim has identified as a young man of North African origin and strong build, slashed the worker's face without any apparent reason before fleeing on foot.

According to doctors, the wound, which required 30 stitches and left an 18-centimetre scar, could have been fatal had it reached his jugular vein.

The incident happened last Wednesday. The victim had parked his car close to work a few minutes before the start of his night shift. He then noticed a suspicious man who, according to the victim's sister, was "wearing a black sweatshirt with long sleeves despite the heat, flip-flops, and a white fanny pack".

The victim believes that the man was between 25 and 35 years of age. "The sidewalk was very narrow and my brother instinctively reached for his backpack," the woman said.

The healthcare worker then sat down on a bench a few metres from his workplace. While he was killing time, he felt someone approach him from behind and grab his cheek. "He was attacked from behind without a word. With one hand he grabbed his face, pressing down, and with the other he slashed it," the victim's sister said.

According to her, it was a random attack, not a robbery attempt. The victim saw the man flee on foot. "That's when he realised it was the same man he had seen before. He recognised him by his clothes. He had time to see him because the man tripped and fell to the ground," the woman said.

The victim grabbed his backpack, intending to run after the man, but immediately realised he was bleeding profusely. "That's when he got really scared. He tried to staunch the wound with his hands and started shouting for help," his sister explained.

Luckily, two people leaving a nearby bar found him and alerted the authorities, after which an ambulance took him to Hospital Regional.

The assault was not the only violent incident the suspect was allegedly involved in that night. While the injured man was being treated in the middle of the street, a motorcyclist passing by stopped abruptly upon witnessing the scene. He asked what had happened and then mentioned that the same man had tried to rob his wife at a nearby ice cream parlour.

According to his account, the man approached the woman with the intention of stealing her necklace. Her husband and several other people intervened to defend her, starting a scuffle in which they threw chairs from the terrace and motorcycle helmets at him to repel the robbery. The thief fled on foot and it was during this escape, just a few minutes later, that he ran into the healthcare worker.

The severity of the attack could have had fatal consequences, the victim's sister said. The wound was so deep that the man had to be stitched twice: first in the hospital emergency room and later at his insurance clinic because it hadn't closed properly.

"The doctors told us that one more centimetre and it would have severed his jugular vein. He wouldn't have survived," the woman said.

The physical pain is immense. The tightness of the stitches prevents him from moving normally and he can't exert any force, but the real damage is invisible.

"He's devastated, unable to sleep and barely able to speak. He's been scarred for life, both physically and psychologically," the victim's sister said.

The man is a father of young children. He specialises in working with vulnerable groups. "He's in treatment, urgently seeking psychological support because he can't sleep and is terrified. Every time someone asks him about what happened or looks at his face, he completely breaks down. He doesn't want to go out."

The National Police are investigating the incident and locate the perpetrator, although they have reported no arrests so far. Given the lack of new developments, the family have decided to speak out and ask for the public's help.

"If anyone saw anything that night or if this man has tried this with someone else, please come forward. We don't want this crime to go unpunished," the victim's family said.

"We're seeing what Malaga is becoming and it's frightening. What we want is for crime to decrease, for there to be more patrols and more control on the streets of our neighbourhoods. This time it happened to my brother, who was waiting to go into work, but tomorrow it could happen to anyone."

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