The Mossos d'Esquadra arrested on Thursday two teenagers aged 14 and 15 accused of seven assaults on elderly women in the Mariola neighborhood of Lleida. The robberies would have been committed by the snatch-and-grab method on Mercè street and its surroundings, with victims mostly of advanced age.
The investigation places the first assault last March 5. Among the victims figure two 91-year-old women and, in two of the cases, the injuries suffered required a hospital admission.
Assaults on la Mercè street and escape towards the Blocs Joan Carles
The Catalan police attribute the events to groups of between two and four young people who, allegedly, acted in a coordinated manner and then escaped in the direction of Blocs Joan Carles. The investigation remains open to identify other minors who could be involved in these robberies.
The case has generated concern in this area of Mariola, where the assaults would have concentrated in full public thoroughfare and with a repeated pattern on women vulnerable due to their age.
Detained in the early hours for a robbery with force in a burned apartment
In the same neighborhood, the Guardia Urbana arrested at 2:05 AM a 47-year-old man for an alleged crime of robbery with force. The officers caught him while, allegedly, he was committing a looting in a dwelling in the Blocs Joan Carles that caught fire last Monday.
The fire left seven people injured. Among them were a 16-year-old boy and a 71-year-old woman with burns, both transferred to Arnau hospital.
The police action occurs while the open investigations continue both for the chain of snatchings from elderly women in La Mariola and for the looting detected in the building affected by the fire, two distinct episodes that once again place the Blocs Joan Carles and its surroundings in the focus of local news.