This is the horrifying moment an angry man slaps a one-year-old girl in Barcelona.
Shocking footage shows the man shouting at the family of tourists, including the girl standing in front of him.
At first, the man pretended to hit the girl, stopping just inches from her face, before delivering another blow to the one-year-old girl, hitting her left cheek.
The girl’s father took his crying daughter into 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 occurred on a walkway on Barcelona’s Montjuic Hill, where popular tourist attractions such as the Sagrada Familia Basilica are located.
Shocking footage shows the man shouting at the family of tourists, including the girl standing in front of him. At first, the man pretended to hit the girl, stopping just inches from her face, before delivering another blow to the one-year-old girl, hitting her left cheek.
The 31-year-old man, an Ecuadorian national, allegedly assaulted two other people over the weekend before being arrested by police on Sunday, local media report.
The girl’s father took his daughter into 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 being arrested by police on Sunday, local media report.
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 through video and witness descriptions.
The man is due to appear in court on Tuesday.
This comes as anti-tourism sentiment appears to be on the rise in Spain, with regular protests taking place in tourist hotspots including Barcelona this year.
Thousands of protesters marched through central Barcelona on July 6, waving banners and throwing water guns at tourists in the latest expression of anger over perceived over-tourism in Spain.
Under the motto ‘Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism’, some 2,800 people – according to the police – marched through a maritime neighborhood in Barcelona to demand a new economic model that reduces the millions of tourists who visit each 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 spots.
Chants of “Tourists out of our neighborhood” could be heard as some stopped outside hotel entrances.
The rising cost of housing in Barcelona, up 68 percent in the last decade, is one of the movement’s main problems, along with the effects of tourism on local commerce and working conditions in the city of 1.6 million inhabitants.
Rents rose 18 percent in June from a year earlier in tourist cities such as Barcelona and Madrid, according to real estate website Idealista.
For years, the city has sported anti-tourist graffiti with messages such as “tourists go home” directed at visitors, who are blamed for rising prices and shaping the economy around tourists.
Barcelona Mayor Jaume Collboni announced in June a plan to phase out all short-term rentals by 2028, an unexpectedly drastic move by authorities seeking to curb rising housing costs and make the city be habitable for residents.
Protesters threw water guns at tourists eating at popular spots in the city on July 6.
A symbolic cordon was placed around a bar-restaurant in an area popular with tourists during the Barcelona protest in July.
But many still feel that not enough is being done to balance the needs of tourists, who bring millions to the city each year, with those of locals.
‘Local stores are closing to make way for stores that do not meet the needs of the neighborhoods. People can’t pay the rent,” said Isa Miralles, a 35-year-old musician who lives in the Barceloneta neighborhood.
“I have nothing against tourism, but here in Barcelona we suffer from an excess of tourism that has made our city uninhabitable,” 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.
