Yasine Kanjaa, the man arrested for the deadly attack on two churches in Algeciras, sowed panic last night for just over an hour in the center of this city of Cadiz that today has dawned with its streets full of media. Witnesses of the gruesome moments in which the arrested man walked around -dressed in a djellaba and with a large bloody machete in his hand- explain how confusion and fear seized the parishioners who witnessed how he killed a sacristan and wounded four other people, including another priest from a nearby church. Everything happened in a very small perimeter.
The terrifying afternoon began on the steep Ruíz Tagle street. After a long night in which agents from the fight against terrorism have searched the house where the detainee lived, the house remains completely empty this morning. There is dirt and a lot of mess in the courtyard of the block, in which two unusable toilets appear to have served as landfills. There he lived together with two other people, who after being questioned have not been arrested. From the local consistory they explain that the alleged terrorist arrived in Algeciras in summer.
Born in Morocco in 1993, he has no criminal record. It is false that he was being followed by information agents, contrary to what some media have published, as they say from the Ministry of the Interior. What he did have open was an expulsion file for irregular situation since last June.
Minutes before the 7:00 p.m. mass began, the alleged jihadist entered the temple shouting and rebuking the parishioners, accusing them of following an erroneous religion. A witness present during those first minutes, which did not suggest anything that was coming, explains to this newspaper that he came to take a gospel with contempt. Even making the feint of throwing it to the ground. However, the believers gathered in this parish managed to calm down in a certain way, according to the same sources present, and the 26-year-old left the place, returning to his home, located a few meters away.
According to police sources, after collecting numerous testimonies, Yasine Kanjaa returned to the parish at 7:20 p.m., when there was little left to finish. This time he appeared with a large machete in hand and dressed in a black djellaba. The experts explain that this chosen color means that, a priori, he had no intention of immolating himself, since the terrorists choose the target for these cases. The arrested person went towards the priest Antonio Rodríguez, who received a deep cut on the never. Although his initial prognosis was serious, the priest's life is not in danger. After this attack Yasine Kanjaa fled.
The young Moroccan walked the few streets with a huge unevenness that separate one church from another in just a few minutes, before the incredulous gaze of neighbors and merchants who explain how phones in hand began to make emergency calls. Today it is difficult to find videos of those moments that have circulated on social networks or WhatsApp groups. "Everything happened very quickly and I only managed to call 112," recalls a neighbor.
In the largest church in Algeciras, in the heart of the town, he entered at 7:30 p.m., according to police sources. There he stormed in, shouting "Allah is great", with everything that was placed in his path thanks to the knife he was carrying: religious images, candles... Until the sacristan Diego Valencia, 73, tried to stop him. . The parish priest of this temple, Juan José Marina, declared last night to the microphones of Cadena Ser that the fatal destiny was probably headed for him. But at the time of the attack he was giving communions oblivious to what was happening. Yasine Kanjaa stabbed the sacristan for the first time inside the temple.
According to witnesses who witnessed the scene, the sacristan tried to get away from the attacker with a metal chair, to which he responded by hitting him with an ashtray. Another woman, known as Pepa Moreno, knelt before the attacker, yelling at him: "Please, don't kill me."
After the attack close to the neck, he tried to flee from the attacker. He left the church, but the alleged terrorist gave chase in the square next to the church. There, in the middle of the night, and with some neighbors witnessing the scene, he stabbed him several times and hit him on the head until he died. Although the emergency services tried to revive him, nothing could be done to save his life. His wife is admitted for observation for what looked like a heart attack.
Today this square, the nerve center of the city of just over 120,000 inhabitants, has been filled with residents who have observed a minute of silence at noon, which has been broken by enormous applause. Everyone is full of praise for the murdered sacristan, who in the words of the priest "was his hands and his eyes." “I have already had to take five limes today”, comments a woman who comments that she has not slept all night.
After brutally killing the sacristan, the Moroccan continued to flee. It remains to be seen if he intended to attack again or simply hide when he heard the police sirens. He walked just over 50 meters to the Europe Chapel, a small temple on the corner of Plaza Alta itself, from where you can see the shipyards. There he tried to access, but it was locked tight. The agents of the Local Police of Algeciras stopped him to transfer him to police stations.
After knowing the facts, the National Court took up the case for an alleged terrorist crime. The Ministry of the Interior has informed that during this night the house has been searched and now all the seized effects are being analyzed in order to determine if he acted alone or is part of a jihadist cell. The first hypothesis is the main scenario with which the investigators work, according to police sources.
