MURCIA, SPAIN — Spain’s National Police have arrested two individuals as the alleged perpetrators of the brutal stabbing of a young man on Wednesday on a public street in the Spanish town of Molina de Segura (Murcia), police sources report.

According to sources close to the case, the two suspects had been harassing the boy’s partner whom they then stabbed savagely in the street.

In fact, this harassment had already been reported to the police station and would have been the trigger for the two attackers, upon learning of it, to decide to retaliate.

These men had waited for the victim, named José and 33 years old, in the vicinity of his work. It was at the height of Triunfo Street when they jumped on him and, according to witnesses, began to attack him brutally with large bladed weapons.

“A machete”, according to those present. Police sources indicate that it was a large kitchen knife, which was found at the scene of the aggression.

One of the witnesses of the attack tried to mediate and was able to snatch the machete from the attackers. There were tense moments, as the officers on the scene pointed their guns at this neighbor, as they saw him with the knife in his hand.

José was stabbed several times in the back and extremities. He bore the brunt of it in one hand. “They practically amputated it,” said those present.

With the investigation having just begun, sources close to the case point out that the quarrels had been going on for a long time, due to a question of jealousy. One of the subjects would have taken it out on the young José because he had a relationship with a woman he had been with before.

Many neighbors recorded from their homes the aggression and the videos quickly circulated from phone to phone, via WhatsApp. The police are also analyzing the images to try to clarify what happened.