On 10 November, officers responding to a shooting reported shortly after 7am found a partly open backpack in Villafría, a neighbourhood in Oviedo. A light was blinking inside, so they called in the National Police Tedax bomb-disposal team. A sub-inspector from the canine unit approached the bag. It exploded, killing him. Initial accounts put the blast between 8:40am and 9am.
The explosion happened at about 9am in a portal on Calle Rafael Urrusti. The Tedax agent accompanying the sub-inspector was seriously injured and taken to the Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias. EL MUNDO reported that he had suffered the amputation of a leg. One police officer died in the blast, and another was seriously injured.
The shooting that brought officers to the area had left a 17-year-old girl injured. Early reports linked the incident to a neighbourhood dispute. Spain’s National Police mounted a large operation and cordoned off the area while officers investigated the shooting and the suspicious backpack. Oviedo mayor Alfredo Canteli was travelling to the scene to gather information; investigators were still working to establish the circumstances.
