“Very violent aggressions” break out between Irish and Dutch late-night revellers
Four young Dutch holidaymakers were violently stabbed (according to Jornal de Notícias, one of the victims was so badly hurt, he is ‘fighting for his life’) in the early hours of Monday morning in Albufeira. A fifth received light stab wounds. All were transported to hospital in an incident that comes JUST as Albufeira is trying to clean up its act.
Literally within hours of the minister of interior administration visiting the town grappling to control anti-social “excessive behaviour”, this latest disgrace erupted – again in the ‘incident blackspot’ of downtown Oura.
According to reports, the young group of Dutch – aged between 17 and 21 – were returning to their holiday village in the early hours when they “started to complain because of the loud music coming from one of the apartments.
“The aggressors, holidaymakers from the Republic of Ireland, went to get knives and attacked the victims”, writes Correio da Manhã.
Emergency services were quickly called to the scene: 32 operatives, no less than 12 vehicles from the fire stations of Albufeira and Messines, as well as INEM medical response and GNR police. Three knives were “apprehended”. PJ police are now investigating.
The incident was called in to authorities at 4.30am, having taken place in Rua Ramalho Ortigão, says the tabloid.
One of the salient questions emerging from this latest disgrace is ‘are holidaymakers travelling to Portugal with knives? Or are they purchasing them once they get here? If the latter, perhaps controls on over-the-counter knife purchases should be added to the list of measures the local municipality is enacting in a bid to cleanse the holiday destination of its increasingly problematic image.
