Seven youths, some of them mere children, were held by police over the weekend after a riot broke out in the Camino de los Almendrales district of Malaga City on Saturday 31 October. In the course of the gang fight, one 17-year-old was gravely injured and remains in a coma in the Intensive Care Unit of the Carlos Haya Hospital.
Another youth was also stabbed in the same incident. 20-year-old “AJD”, as police have identified him, is said to be in a stable condition.
Local police were called to the vicinity of the brawl, but once the seriousness of the injuries was known, the crime scene was handed over to the Homicide Unit of the National Police Corps. The investigation has thus far centred on reconstruc-ting the events of Saturday afternoon. The seven youths who spent the weekend in custody were identified by local officers as having been involved in the fighting, and having tried to flee the scene at the sound of police sirens.
The gang-based “rumble” was said by witnesses to have erupted at about one o’clock in the afternoon in a neighbourhood known locally as “El Puebecito”, a favourite haunt of Malaga city’s teenage gangs.First reports, taken exclusively from gang members loyal to the stabbed 20-year-old, suggest that the youngster who is now in a coma attacked the older man with a knife, allegedly in connection with an outstanding grievance. According to this (admittedly unreliable) version, the 17-year-old then wounded himself with his own weapon.Police are stressing that this account is unlikely to be true, given the seriousness of the injuries suffered by the teenager, which point to a severe beating in addition to the life-threatening stab wound.A local resident alerted the police after seeing a youngster soaked in blood. The teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was rushed to hospital by ambulance after lapsing into a coma at the scene.