This is the moment a fed-up resident threw a bucket of water over a homeless man whose alleged filthy habits are causing a stench in the street.
Footage shared on Instagram shows the heavily obese man sitting on the bench with just a thin sheet covering his body.
Suddenly, a man holding a bucket of water appears to his right and throws it over him.
While some locals branded the drastic measure ‘cruel’ and ‘assault’, others said it was ‘necessary’.
According to local reports, residents and businesses have repeatedly complained about the man’s behaviour and the insanitary conditions surrounding the area where he spends his time.
They accuse him of relieving himself in the street, including on or around public benches.
Residents have complained of a persistent smell and say some now avoid using street furniture because of concerns over hygiene.
‘Besides being a public health risk by doing his business everywhere, he says obscene things to women who walk past,’ one complaint shared on social media said.
Another woman said she now crosses the road whenever she sees him, while another resident claimed: ‘I don’t sit on the benches anymore. Sometimes I’ve found faeces there.’
The increasingly tense situation has prompted intervention from Fuengirola town hall, after the footage of the water chucking emerged.
Council: ‘You cannot take the law into your own hands’
The council said it understood the frustration felt by residents and businesses but appealed for restraint.
‘We completely understand the anger of residents and traders. But that does not give anyone the right to take the law into their own hands,’ the authority said in response to the footage.
According to the council, the man has accumulated numerous sanctions from the Local Police for breaches of municipal ordinances and rules governing public behaviour.
However, officials stressed that these offences do not legally prevent him from remaining in a public space.
The council also said its Social Services department has repeatedly offered the man assistance, but that he has refused the help offered to him.
Social workers are continuing to work alongside the Policía Nacional and Local Police in an attempt to persuade him to accept an alternative to living on the street.
Case referred to prosecutors and court
Fuengirola City Council confirmed on Thursday that it has now referred the situation to both the Malaga Provincial Prosecutor’s Office and a Fuengirola court.
The authority said the move followed the ‘repeated disturbances and inconveniences’ allegedly caused by the man despite numerous offers of assistance, particularly affecting residents and businesses in the surrounding area.
Officials have submitted details of the numerous complaints made over his behaviour while also stressing the need to protect ‘his dignity, integrity and vulnerability as a human being.’
Meanwhile, the incident involving the bucket of water has itself been reported to prosecutors.
The Diversity and Hate Crimes Section of the Women’s Assistance Team (EAM) has referred what it describes as an ‘assault’ on the homeless man to Malaga’s hate crime prosecutor and has called for the person responsible to be identified.
The organisation expressed particular concern that footage had been circulated showing the man naked and in an extremely vulnerable situation.
It said it would also refer the publication of the images to Spain’s Data Protection Agency (AEPD) so it can consider whether their circulation breached data protection rules.
The incident has additionally been reported to Observatorio Hatento, which specialises in hate crimes committed against homeless people.
The EAM said it was already familiar with the man because he is included in its social intervention rounds during the current spell of extreme summer temperatures.
