Woman stabbed to death in Barcelona during attempted cellphone robbery

A 26-year-old Spanish woman was stabbed to death and a security guard injured in Barcelona after being attacked during a violent robbery at a nightclub.

The incident took place at an entertainment district in Port Olímpic, where the victim was alerted by a witness to the fact that a man was stealing her cellphone. The woman turned to the security guard, who reprehended the thief for his action. At that point, the assailant took out a knife and attacked both of them.

The Catalan police have opened an investigation into the incident, which took place at around 3am inside a nightclub called Smar. The suspect fled the scene and has not yet been identified or located.

Both stab victims were taken by ambulance to Hospital del Mar, where the woman died from a chest wound.

This is the latest case to make headlines after a month of August marked by a spike in crime in the Catalan capital. The mayor, Ada Colau, has blamed the regional government, while opposition parties in the city council say it is due to Colau’s inefficient policies.

“Seeing police on the streets bothers her,” said Lorena Roldán, head of the center-right Ciudadanos party in the Catalan parliament. Her group defends a reform of the criminal code to toughen up penalties for offenders.

So far this year, 13 people have met with a violent death in Barcelona, and police are still investigating the death of an elderly couple inside their home in August.

There were 49,300 crime reports between January and March in Barcelona, half of which were for theft. But the biggest cause for concern is the rise in violent theft (28%), representing around 40 cases a day.

English version by Susana Urra.