The man was taken to hospital emergency care after the attack. Credit: Junta de Andalucía
A woman on holiday in Málaga went to the police to report her husband missing and was shown a short video of a patient in a hospital emergency room, who turned out to be him. He’d been beaten and robbed in the street, then left unconscious with serious head injuries.
A patrol found him unconscious in La Trinidad
Local Police officers found a 46-year-old foreign tourist lying unconscious in the street in the Málaga city neighbourhood of La Trinidad around the middle of last week. He’d suffered severe head injuries, so the officers arranged for him to be taken to the Hospital Regional, where he was admitted straight to the intensive care unit.
Nobody knew who he was at the time. His mobile phone and other belongings had been taken, which left officers with nothing to identify him by, and his nationality hasn’t been made public.
A video clip led his wife to him
Medical staff and police recorded a brief video of him in the emergency room to help with identification, and the case was passed to the National Police. They then set out to find his attackers and work out who he was.
The breakthrough came from his wife, who was on holiday with him. When he hadn’t come back for several hours and her repeated calls to his phone went unanswered, she went to the Foreign Tourist Attention Service (SATE) office in Plaza de la Marina to report him missing.
SATE is a National Police service for foreign tourists, and after the report, a patrol was sent to the office and showed her the emergency room clip, which confirmed it was her husband, and she was then told he’d been taken to hospital after a violent street robbery.
He’s now out of intensive care
The man has since stabilised and has been moved from intensive care to a general ward to recover from his head injuries. Investigators believe the main motive was the theft of his mobile phone. His injuries suggest he was either badly beaten or hit with enough force to collapse and strike his head on the pavement, though police haven’t confirmed the exact method. The National Police investigation to identify and arrest those responsible is continuing, and no arrests have been reported so far.
If you’re on holiday and ever need help with an issue similar to this one, the SATE office is where visitors can go for help.