In an incident which happened in Spain early Monday morning, 29 year-old Algerian man Abdelouahab Taib was shot dead when he tried to attack a police station while armed with a knife.

While the authorities are treating it as a terrorist incident, the attacker’s wife has told local media she suspects the incident was a suicide attempt as he was ashamed of being gay.  

His wife said he had come out to her two months previously and felt immense shame as it conflicted with his Muslim beliefs. Two weeks ago, she told him she wanted a divorce. He continued to struggle with his homosexuality and she believes he carried out the knife attack in a deliberate suicide attempt, knowing he would be killed by police.

Taib went to the police station in the early hours of Monday morning and repeatedly pressed the buzzer until he was admitted. Once inside, he immediately pulled out a large knife and lunged at the officers present. One of the officers was forced to use a gun on Taib in order to prevent him from stabbing her. Taib was killed instantly.

The station was then cordoned off and Taib’s body removed. Police evacuated neighbouring houses before carrying out a search of the attacker’s home which was only a few hundred metres from the station.

Authorities stated it was an isolated incident. Police chief Rafel Comas told reporters: “The officer can only remember that he used the word Allah, the other words were incomprehensible. On this evidence, for the moment, we are treating it as a terrorist attack.” This is due to the phrase “Allahu akbar” (God is great) being used by jihadists during other attacks.

It comes three days after the anniversary of the Barcelona van attack where 16 people were killed when a terrorist deliberately drove into crowds of people.