People arrested over Elche shooting

THREE of the six people arrested over last week’s Elche shootout have been remanded into custody without bail.

Four people were injured – including a pregnant bystander – in a shootout in the town’s  Barrio Viejo neighbourhood a week last Monday. Police suspect the incident was a settling of scores between rival drug gangs.

According to witnesses, at approximately 7.45pm two women approached a third at her Calle Diego Martinez Sanchez home and started shouting abuse at her.

When the woman, aged 33, came out of her home to respond to the insults another woman and a man arrived in a vehicle armed with at least one handgun and a knife and started firing ‘indiscriminately’. The woman who was being insulted was shot in the thigh.

Hearing the commotion a woman,21, who is 5 months pregnant stepped outside her nearby home to see what was happening. Once outside, another three people armed with handguns on the scene appeared and started firing.

It remains unclear who the three people were shooting at. Two of these shots hit the pregnant woman in the chest and back. Another two men involved in the incident sustained minor injuries.

Seconds two men involved in the ‘shooting’ escaped on foot leaving the white Seat Ibiza they had arrive in at the scene. The pregnant victim is in Elche Hospital in a critical condition as one of the bullets punctured a lung.