Knifeman decapitates British woman in Tenerife supermarket

A deranged knifeman decapitated a British woman in a supermarket and fled with her head Friday on the Spanish resort island of Tenerife, media said.

The man, said to be a 28-year-old vagrant known in the area, apparently picked his victim at random in the Chinese supermarket, said press reports quoting witnesses and the national police.

He was caught while fleeing.

“A man came running up with something full of blood in his hand and a private security guard behind him, and he threw it on the ground and it almost hit me,” a witness told Cadena Ser radio.

“What he had in his hand was a head.”

The victim was reportedly a 60-year-old British woman who worked in the supermarket, which was within a shopping centre in the tourist spot of Los Cristianos beach on the southern side of Tenerife.

In London, a Foreign Office official said it had been informed of the attack. “We are aware of reports of the death of a British national in Tenerife and are urgently investigating,” she said.

Tenerife, which is home to around one million residents and one of Spain’s most popular tourist destinations, forms part of the Canary Islands archipelo.