Spain’s ‘Wolfman’ dies, Barcelona remembers victims of Ramblas terror attack, increase in heat-related deaths and more news this Tuesday August 18th.
Spain’s ‘Wolfman’ dies
Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja, better known as ‘El niño lobo de Sierra Morena‘ or Wolf Boy of the Sierra Morena, has died aged 80. The story of his life has been one of the most extraordinary tales in Spain.
Born in 1946 in Córdoba, Rodríguez’s mother died during childbirth. His father moved them to Fuencaliente, in Ciudad Real, where they lived in extreme poverty, leading him to sell his son to an elderly goatherd in the mountains.
When his carer died, the young Marcos – between five and seven years old – was left alone for more than a decade in the wilderness.
It was then that he shared his life with various wild animals, particularly wolves, with whom he forged a strong relationship and adopted some of their ways.
He was finally discovered by police at age 19 and forced to re-entered society, with many questioning if he was telling the truth about his feral upbringing.
A movie was made about his life entitled Entrelobos (Among Wolves) in 2010.
Spain registers 1,108 heat-related deaths in August
Spain recorded 1,108 deaths associated with high temperatures during the first half of August, authorities reported on Monday.
That’s 146 more than in the same period last year, when Spain’s Daily Mortality Monitoring System (MoMo) estimated 962 deaths.
According to MoMo estimates, this figure represents the third-highest count for the first 15 days of August since the monitoring began in 2015, surpassed only by the figures for 2018 (when an estimated 1,197 heat-related deaths occurred) and 2022 (with 1,225).
A total of 670 of the deceased were women and 438 were men. The majority – 1,070 – were over the age of 65, and among them, 659 were over 85.
Palma grandfather arrested after grandchildren found walking along building ledge
Two young children were found walking along a ledge several metres above the ground in the Mallorcan capital of Palma on Monday after their grandfather took a nap rather than sticking to his babysitting duties.
The older child came particularly close to falling as he reached a narrow overhang, according to the local press.
Neighbours called the police who then came to the rescue. The parents arrived shortly afterward and took care of the children, while the National Police arrested the grandfather for the alleged neglect of his two grandchildren.
Barcelona remembers victims of Ramblas terror attack
Barcelona on Monday marked the ninth anniversary of the double terror attack which occurred on August 17th 2017, in which 16 people were killed and more than a hundred were injured by a jihadist terrorist cell.
The main attack took place on the city’s Ramblas, when one of the terrorists rammed a van into people on the crowded avenue for 530 metres, killing 13 people and wounding dozens.
Victims, as well as relatives of the deceased, attended the ceremony at Plaça de Sant Jaume on Monday. It included poems and musical performances and concluded with a minute’s silence.
