A monk has been beaten to death and seven others have been injured after a break in at a Spanish monastery.
The friar, aged 76, died in a Valencia hospital on Saturday afternoon after an intruder allegedly assaulted him and other monks in their rooms in the Santo Espiritu del Monte Monastery in Gilet.
The attacker, a 46-year-old Spaniard who has since been detained by police, hit the men with a staff from a historic statue and shouted ‘I am Jesus Christ’, according to local media.
Witnesses said he also used a stick and a glass bottle to carry out the attack.
Seven other monks were injured in the shocking attack, with three clergymen aged 57, 66 and 95 being taken to hospital, one of them reportedly in critical condition.
Gilet’s mayor Salvador Costa told local press the intruder had entered the building shouting ‘I am Jesus Christ’ before beginning to physically attack the monks ‘with the intention of killing them.’
The man reportedly jumped the monastery fence before he went from room to room kicking and punching his victims, he is also said to have yelled out that he was acting ‘in the name of God’.
He fled after being stopped by one of the clergy who went to the aid of his stricken companions.
