A tourist has been beaten with truncheons by police on an Ibiza beach after stripping naked, working out in public and then attempting to shadow box the officers who were called to remove him — in the latest incident of extreme tourist behaviour to hit the Spanish island this summer.
The extraordinary scenes unfolded on the beachfront promenade in the party resort of San Antonio after police received a flurry of calls from concerned members of the public in quick succession. Callers described the man as “apparently drunk, disturbed and quite agitated, possibly due to the consumption of drugs,” according to town hall sources. He had been filmed doing press-ups on a bench before throwing his clothes into the air in front of passersby and was reportedly bothering locals and tourists on s’Arenal beach.
Dramatic footage of the confrontation shows the naked man insulting officers in English, using profanity and challenging them to a fight. When police moved in, he threw punches in their direction, prompting officers to respond with their truncheons. The man can be seen crawling across the sand on all fours as he attempts to escape the blows before being handcuffed and placed in a patrol car. A British tourist can be heard exclaiming “oh my God” as police overpower him, while a Spanish voice can be heard shouting: “Hit him, hit that d***head hard.”
The man was taken to Can Misses Hospital in the island capital. Police have not confirmed his nationality or whether charges will follow.
The incident is the latest in a series of disturbing episodes in San Antonio within the space of days. Just three days earlier, two tourists were filmed brawling in a bloody late-night confrontation directly on top of a £320,000 art mural in the resort — ignoring barrier fences and plastic tape marking the artwork as off-limits. The two men grappled on the floor, pulling each other’s hair and dripping blood onto the mural, while a bystander who tried to intervene was himself punched by a third party who apparently wanted the fight to continue. The taller man eventually grabbed his shorter barefoot opponent by the hair before kicking him in the head. San Antonio town hall chiefs subsequently announced police reinforcements for the summer, with the West End designated as one of four priority areas for additional officers.
The Spanish resort chaos is not limited to Ibiza. Earlier this week, a 44-year-old British holidaymaker was arrested on Poniente Beach in Benidorm after allegedly attempting to drown a Norwegian woman by grabbing her neck and forcing her head underwater, before moving onto the sand and trying to suffocate a five-year-old Spanish boy by pressing his face into the ground. The child’s mother and other sunbathers intervened before a lifeguard restrained the man. He was subsequently placed under 24-hour watch in hospital after allegedly attempting to take his own life in a police cell using a blanket and is being held pending a psychiatric evaluation on suspicion of attempted homicide, wounding and threats.
