Police arrest gunman who barricaded himself inside La Cala de Mijas property

The young man who barricaded himself inside a property in La Cala de Mijas on the Costa del Sol on Monday afternoon has been arrested after a tense standoff.

The individual, 21, apparently fired several shots at Guardia Civil officers who tried to negotiate with him to turn himself in and one of them was injured in the foot.

The gunman is known to the police. Last October he was shot five times in an apparent revenge shooting in Doña Lola, Calahonda. He was left paralysed from the waist down and now moves around with the help of a wheelchair.

The young man, who is Spanish and of Moroccan origin, has been arrested several times by police for serious offences since he was under-18.

The alarm was apparently raised by family members when they realised that the man was armed, so they called for help from the Guardia Civil headquarters in Mijas.

From there, a unit was assembled to try to get the young man to turn himself in. Officers from the force’s rapid action group (GAR) went to the scene to negotiate but the individual - according to sources - responded by opening fire.

The tense situation has made it necessary to cordon off the entire area, in which a strong security presence has been established. A specialist intervention unit (UEI) was mobilised and sent from Madrid to the Costa del Sol.