A Dutch tourist died of suffocation on August 5 after swallowing his car keys in Barcelona, Spain. Les Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police, continue to investigate this case in an attempt to understand exactly what happened.
As reported by the Iberian press, but also by certain Anglo-Saxon media such as the New York PostThe 37-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, broke into a local supermarket shortly after 10 pm asking for help.
The man entered a supermarket in Barcelona “in an evident state of excitement and causing altercations”. And he died after swallowing a car keyhttps://t.co/aBBC9wZqu9
– THE COUNTRY (@el_pais) August 6, 2021
The man was “in an obvious state of panic and causing altercations” at the facility, authorities said. In doing so, the store employees called the municipal police and, dispatched to the scene, the police intervened to control the tourist, but the latter quickly collapsed on the ground outside the establishment.
Police tried to resuscitate him before a medical team arrived, eventually discovering that the victim had the car keys stuck in his throat. The emergency services removed the keys and took the man to the Sant Pau hospital, where he died.
An open investigation
An investigation has been opened and if, at this stage, the accident track is privileged, however, it is not clearly established why the victim may have decided to shove the keys down his throat.
Investigators are also investigating whether the last people he saw could not understand him because he spoke Dutch or if the tourist was unable to communicate intelligibly because of the keys in his throat.
While waiting to clarify the tragedy, the Dutch consulate in Barcelona, in collaboration with the Catalan capital city council, has opened a psychological unit to support the family.