Barcelona man stabs his mother to death in Minorca

National Police were called around two o'clock on Friday morning to a villa - the summer home of the Catalonian family - on the urbanisation of Son Blanc de Ciutadella. The man's older brother, aged 30, had phoned the 112 emergency line, having himself been cut on the hand. He had initially been aware of his younger brother having been in an agitated state and holding a knife on the ground floor of the property.

The older brother woke his parents, and his mother, aged 60, went downstairs to try and calm the 26-year-old. Soon after, there was a commotion, and he and his father also went downstairs, finding the younger brother stabbing his mother. The father received multiple wounds in the struggle that ensued before the 26-year-old stabbed himself in the chest and stomach.

The older brother told the police that his brother is an ex-drug addict and may have suffered some form of mental breakdown. The facts of the case are being investigated, but meanwhile the younger brother and the father are both in hospital. Both have been operated on, and the father, although in a serious condition, was due to be released from intensive care.