The National Police in Elche have arrested three alleged perpetrators of a brutal attack on a 21-year-old who was cut in the face with a knife, stabbed with a punch in the buttock and threatened with a dog, in addition to punching and kicking him when he was helpless on the ground.

The victim underwent emergency surgery at the General Hospital of Alicante for injuries to the face. Despite the three arrests, the detention of the main suspect in the attack is pending, since he fled the country to London after the incident, according to the Police.

Of those arrested, all between the ages of 17 and 26, one has been handed over to the Elche Court of Instruction after making statements at the police headquarters and the minor has been released along with another arrested awaiting trial.

The events occurred in a park in the Carrús neighbourhood of Elche, where apparently two men had met to resolve a previous dispute, according to witnesses and the victim. When the young man arrived at the scene, along with three other friends, he saw the man with whom he had arranged to solve the problem, who was accompanied by at least twenty other individuals.

At one point, and without saying a word, one of these individuals dealt what the witnesses identified as a strong blow to the face of the victim, who fell to the ground with a bleeding wound on his face. Later, it was learned that this blow to the face had been an attack with a knife.

At that moment, the alleged aggressors took advantage of the victim’s defencelessness and stabbed him in the buttock. They also beat him, kicking and punching him in the head.

The victim’s friends tried to help him, but two of the alleged assailants “defiantly” showed them the bladed weapons they were carrying, forcing them to back away while the attack continued.

In addition, one of the alleged perpetrators, the man with whom the victim had supposedly arranged to solve the pending problem, had shown up at the scene with a pit-bull dog, inciting the animal to bite him.

After the brutal beating, the alleged perpetrators fled the scene and left the victim lying on the ground with abundant blood. His friends helped him and took him in a vehicle to the General Hospital of Elche, from where they had to transfer him to the General Hospital of Alicante because he had to receive emergency maxillofacial surgery due to the wound on his face.

The victim, according to the medical report, had a deep wound on the left chin, nasal erosions, incised wounds on the right hand, supposedly caused when trying to defend himself from the attack with a knife, as well as an incised wound on the left buttock.

The Judicial Police undertook the investigation and managed to identify the presumed aggressors, among whom was a minor, whom, based on the statements of the witnesses and the victim, detained and took a statement at police stations.

However, the main alleged aggressor, according to the investigation, took a flight to London the day after the event, for which his arrest is still pending.