A desperate manhunt is underway following an explosion that killed a police officer and seriously injured a bomb disposal expert in Oviedo on Tuesday morning.
The man, identified only as M.F., is suspected of shooting a young woman in the city’s Villafría neighbourhood before fleeing.
Nicknamed ‘El Ruso’ (The Russian), he is believed to have shot the 17-year-old shortly after 7am.
She was taken to the Central University Hospital of Asturias with multiple gunshot wounds. Her life is not believed to be in danger, according to sources cited by 20minutos.
Investigators are looking into whether he also left the backpack that later exploded at the entrance to a building on Calle Rafael Urrusti.
Police have set up checkpoints across Oviedo, according to the newspaper.
Sources close to the investigation said the shooting appeared to stem from a dispute between neighbours and that investigators had provisionally ruled out a terrorist motive.
The shooting happened shortly after 7am, according to Asturias’ regional broadcaster TPA.
The explosion came around two hours later, after officers responding to the shooting found the backpack.
The officer killed was a Policia Nacional sub-inspector attached to the dog unit.
The injured officer, a member of the TEDAX bomb disposal unit, was taken to the Central University Hospital of Asturias, where he underwent emergency surgery to amputate a leg.
