This is the horrifying moment a one-year-old girl was slapped by a raging man in Barcelona.
Shocking footage shows the man screaming at the family of tourists, including the little girl standing in front of him.
At first the man pretended to hit toddler, stopping just inches from her face, before he took another swing at the one-year-old girl, smacking her left cheek.
The child’s father swooped his crying daughter up in his arms before he and the girl’s mother quickly walked away from the man. The little girl suffered minor injuries and did not require hospital treatment, according to police.
The incident reportedly happened on a walkway on Barcelona’s Montjuic hill, where popular tourist attractions like the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia are located.
Shocking footage shows the man screaming at the family of tourists, including the little girl standing in front of him. At first the man pretended to hit toddler, stopping just inches from her face, before he took another swing at the one-year-old girl, smacking her left cheek
The 31-year-old man, an Ecuadorian national, allegedly assaulted two other people over the weekend before he was arrested by police on Sunday, local media reports
The child’s father swooped his daughter up in his arms before he and the girl’s mother quickly walked away from the man. The little girl suffered minor injuries and did not require hospital treatment, according to police
The 31-year-old man, an Ecuadorian national, allegedly assaulted two other people over the weekend before he was arrested by police on Sunday, local media reports.
Another of his alleged victims is a 60-year-old man, who suffered cuts to his face and was left with bruises all over his body.
The attacker was identified via the video footage and eyewitness descriptions.
The man is due to appear in court on Tuesday.
This comes as anti-tourism sentiment appears to mount in Spain, with regular protests being held in tourist hotspots this year, including in Barcelona.
Thousands of protestors marched through central Barcelona on July 6, waving placards and squirting holidaymakers with water guns in the latest expression of anger at perceived overtourism in Spain.
Under the slogan ‘Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism’, some 2,800 people – according to police – marched along a waterfront district of Barcelona to demand a new economic model that would reduce the millions of tourists that visit every year.
Protesters carried signs reading ‘Barcelona is not for sale,’ and, ‘Tourists go home,’ before some used water guns on tourists eating outdoors at restaurants in popular tourist hotspots.
Chants of ‘Tourists out of our neighbourhood’ rang out as some stopped in front of the entrances to hotels.
Barcelona’s rising cost of housing, up 68 percent in the past decade, is one of the main issues for the movement, along with the effects of tourism on local commerce and working conditions in the city of 1.6 million inhabitants.
Rents rose by 18 per cent in June from a year earlier in tourist cities such as Barcelona and Madrid, according to the property website Idealista.
For years, the city has worn anti-tourist graffiti with messages such as ‘tourists go home’ aimed at visitors some blame for the rising prices and shaping of the economy around tourists.
Barcelona’s mayor, Jaume Collboni, announced a plan in June to phase out all short-term lets by 2028, an unexpectedly drastic move by the authorities who seek to rein in soaring housing costs and make the city liveable for residents.
Protestors squirted water guns at tourists eating in popular spots in the city on July 6
A symbolic cordon was put around a bar-restaurant in an area popular with tourists during the Barcelona protest in July
But many still feel not enough is being done to balance the needs of tourists, who bring millions to the city each year, with those of locals.
‘Local shops are closing to make way for stores that do not serve the needs of neighbourhoods. People cannot afford their rents,’ said Isa Miralles, a 35-year-old musician who lives in the Barceloneta district.
‘I have nothing against tourism, but here in Barcelona we are suffering from an excess of tourism that has made our city unliveable,’ said Jordi Guiu, a 70-year-old sociologist.
The northeastern coastal city, with internationally famous sites such as La Sagrada Familia, received more than 12 million tourists last year, according to local authorities.