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Six tourists arrested over sexual assault of British woman in Spain

Spanish police said Wednesday they have arrested five French tourists and a Swiss holidaymaker on suspicion of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old British woman on the holiday island of Mallorca.

Published: 16 August 2023 16:54 CEST

Six tourists arrested over sexual assault of British woman in Spain

The woman had reportedly agreed to go to the room of one of the suspects where she was then allegedly sexually assaulted by all six. (Photo by JAIME REINA / AFP)

The assault allegedly happened at dawn on Monday at a hotel in the resort of Magaluf, which is renowned for its rowdy parties and cheap alcohol as much as its white-sand beaches.

A judge has ordered the six suspects in their early twenties to be held in custody while the investigation into the sexual assault continues, a spokesman for Spain’s Guardia Civil police force said without giving further details.

Under Spanish law, sexual assault takes in a wide array of crimes from online abuse and groping to rape, each with different penalties.

Spanish media said the hotel’s security staff called police after finding the British woman crying for help just outside the establishment.

She had reportedly agreed to go to the room of one of the suspects where she was then sexually assaulted by all six but managed to flee.

Police detained the suspects shortly after. The alleged victim claimed that one of the accused filmed the incident on his mobile phone.

This is the second reported gang rape to take place on Mallorca this summer after another incident in Platja de Palma in late June involving German holidaymakers in their early twenties.

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IN IMAGES: 'Excessive weight' may have caused Mallorca restaurant collapse

Authorities, who declared three days of mourning, gave no immediate indication as to the cause but said the excessive weight of the building was most likely to blame.

The packed two-storey building housing Beach Club Medusa collapsed late on Thursday afternoon in the Playa de Palma area south of the capital with the tourist season already in full swing in the Balearic Islands, which also includes Ibiza and Menorca.

Emergency vehicles outside the Beach Club Medusa restaurant. (Photo by Jaime REINA / AFP)

“There are four dead and 16 injured,” an emergency services spokeswoman said, lowering the initial toll from around 21 injured.

Seven people were injured “very seriously” and nine were seriously injured, emergency services said on the X social media platform. They were taken to various hospitals in the Mediterranean island’s capital, Palma de Mallorca.

Emergency services remove part of the rubble following the collapse. (Photo by Jaime REINA / AFP)

Firefighters were deployed in number, ambulances rushed victims to hospital and the street was sealed off by police to allow rescue teams to work, an AFP journalist saw.

One firefighter described a “nightmarish” scene.

Graphic content: A body covered by a survival blanket is seen after the two-storey restaurant partially collapsed. (Photo by Jaime REINA / AFP)

He told the Ultima Hora newspaper that when he arrived, people were crying and screaming around the rubble piled up on the ground floor.

Rescuers pleaded for silence so they could listen out for people who could be trapped under the rubble.

The head of the Palma fire service, Eder Garcia, said the street-level floor of the building had collapsed onto a bar in the basement, which is “where we found the most victims”.

Firefighter’s head Eder Garcia, flanked by Palma’s mayor Jaime Martínez (2L) and Balearic government’s President Margalida Phroens (L), talks to media after the two-storey restaurant collapsed.(Photo by Jaime REINA / AFP)

“The causes are being investigated. The first hypothesis is that it was possibly due to excessive weight,” he told reporters at the scene.

The four people killed in the collapse of a beachfront restaurant on Spain’s holiday island of Mallorca were two German tourists, a Senegalese man and a Spanish woman, police said on Friday.

“The victims are two German women aged 20 and 30, a 23-year-old Spanish employee and a 44-year-old Senegalese man,” a police spokesman told AFP.

A technical team was due to visit the site on Friday to determine the cause of the collapse of the building, which sits on Calle de Cartago facing the Bay of Palma.

Photo taken the morning after Beach Club Medusa’s collapse showing the rubble piled up outside. (Photo by Jaime REINA / AFP)

‘Terrible collapse’

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez conveyed his condolences to the victims’ families on X, saying he was “closely following the consequences of the terrible collapse”.

The central government was prepared to send “all the necessary resources” to help the regional authorities cope, he added.

Sanchez said he had spoken to the governor of the Balearic Islands region, where Mallorca is located, and to the city’s mayor.

Balearic Islands president Marga Prohens said on X that she was “shocked” by the news, adding she was sending “love and warmth to the families of the four people who have lost their lives”.

Close-up of the building showing the damage caused by the collapse. (Photo by Jaime REINA / AFP)

Mallorca is known for its pristine waters and beaches, and the Balearic Islands attract more tourists than all Spanish regions after Catalonia.

More than 14 million tourists visited the islands last year, according to official figures.

Thursday’s collapse took place at the start of the archipelago’s peak tourist season, on a beachfront avenue home to several shops and entertainment venues.

The 2009 collapse of a three-story building in Palma de Mallorca killed seven people, including three Colombians and two Germans.

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