Knifeman slices woman's throat in deadly broad daylight attack in Spanish tourist hotspot

A man has been arrested after a woman was killed in a broad daylight attack in Barcelona.

Police rushed to Esplugues de Llobregat on the western edge of the tourist hotspot at 11am on Saturday.

The attacker slashed the victim's throat with a knife on the town's Joan Miro street - where she died.

Catalan police apprehended the suspect shortly after launching a major search operation.

A forensic tent was later set up to shield the body from public view.

Neither the victim nor her attacker have been publicly named.

Witnesses said the man produced a large knife in the street and displayed "nervous behaviour" before his rampage.

He is said to have stabbed the woman repeatedly before cutting her throat and fleeing the area, with blood seen on the streets after the attack.

Bystanders contacted emergency services immediately, and though paramedics arrived at the scene, they were unable to save her life.

Catalan police located and detained him a short time later.

Authorities are treating the case as a potential instance of "gender-based violence", though a connection between the victim and her attacker has not yet been established.

Detectives are also examining whether a man who received treatment for minor wounds nearby may have been attacked by the same suspect.

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The Esplugues City Council said it "deeply regrets the violent death of a person in the city" and offered condolences to the woman's relatives.

"Out of respect for the ongoing investigation and all those affected, we ask for prudence and responsibility, and to avoid spreading unverified information," a statement added.

Spanish Government data on domestic and gender-based violence recorded 49 women and one man killed by current or former partners last year.

Knives were used in 65.5 per cent of cases since monitoring began in 2003.

A shared home was the location of attacks in 74 per cent of recorded incidents.

The death comes just months after a British teenager was stabbed in his neck and lung by a phone thief in another Spanish tourist hotspot.

Theo Wright, 18, was left fighting for his life when chasing after the Moroccan thief in Tenerife.

Mr Wright said a pair of Ukrainians helped him with first aid, adding: "I saw all the blood and really thought I was brown bread."