The latest: Deadly booby-trap detonates inside residential entryway
OVIEDO, Spain — November 10, 2026.
A veteran Spanish National Police officer and his canine partner were killed, and an explosive ordnance disposal specialist was critically wounded, when an improvised backpack bomb detonated inside a residential building in the northern city of Oviedo following an armed domestic dispute.
According to the General Directorate of the Policía Nacional and the Government Delegation in Asturias, the incident occurred early Tuesday morning on Calle Rafael Urrusti in Oviedo's Villafría district. Patrol units initially raced to the scene following emergency calls reporting gunfire and discovered a 17-year-old girl suffering from gunshot wounds. While securing the residential corridor and evacuating upstairs residents, officers encountered a partially open backpack resting on a landing, emitting a suspicious pulsating LED light.
Specialized units from the Guías Caninos (Canine Unit) and TEDAX-NRBQ (Bomb Disposal Squad) were rushed in to inspect the package. As 60-year-old Sub-inspector Juan José—widely known among colleagues as 'Jota'—and his 3-year-old German Shepherd service dog, Deni, approached to establish an evacuation perimeter, the homemade explosive device detonated with devastating force.
Sub-inspector and service dog die instantly; bomb tech suffers amputation
The blast shattered the entranceway of the residential block, blowing out masonry and raining shrapnel across the street. Sub-inspector Juan José and his canine partner Deni died instantly from the concussive force and shrapnel injuries. A responding TEDAX specialist standing nearby sustained life-threatening blast trauma, requiring emergency field tourniquets and the subsequent surgical amputation of a leg at the Central University Hospital of Asturias (HUCA).
The wounded 17-year-old gunshot victim was stabilized by paramedic crews and transported to HUCA, where physicians reported she is expected to recover from non-fatal extremity wounds. No other civilians were harmed, largely because officers had commenced building evacuations moments prior to the blast.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska conveyed the government’s profound sorrow to the officer’s family and colleagues, announcing that the Gold Medal for Police Merit would be awarded posthumously. Across police headquarters in Madrid, Barcelona, and Seville, officers observed a minute of silence at noon.
Nationwide manhunt underway for armed suspect with criminal record
Judicial police and tactical assault units cordoned off the entire Villafría district and sealed major road exits across the Principality of Asturias as a high-priority manhunt got underway. Authorities identified the fugitive suspect as a man in his sixties with an extensive criminal record involving weapons possession, violent assault, and narcotics offenses.
Investigators stressed that early forensic evidence indicates the incident stemmed from an escalated interpersonal or domestic dispute rather than organized jihadist or political terrorism. However, the presence of a sophisticated electronic detonator on the backpack bomb has alarmed anti-terror specialists, who are tracing the suspect's access to industrial mining explosives common in the historical coal-mining regions of Asturias.
“We are not dealing with a terrorist cell, but with an extraordinarily dangerous, heavily armed individual who deliberately booby-trapped a bag to ambush responding officers,” an Asturias police spokesperson stated at a briefing in Oviedo.
