Tenerife: Man brutally beaten with parasole stick on Los Abrigos beach in front of horrified holidaymakers

A man has been filmed brutally beating another with beachgoers heard screaming and hurriedly moving their children away. The incident unfolded on the Los Abrigos beach on the south coast of Tenerife.

In the video a man, believed to be a 48-year-old Austrian, was beaten by another said to be Dutch and aged in his 30s. "If he had taken an iron bar or a wooden stick, he would have been killed," one witness told Spanish media, with pictures showing the cuts the man suffered from what is thought to have been an aluminium pole.

There had been claims that the attack followed an attempted pick-pocketing on the beach but police have said they are not investigating this as a motive. The footage does not have the lead-up to the incident.

The video shows the aggressor repeatedly hitting the other with the pole who can then be seen falling backwards as he is hit. The victim of the blows waded out into the sea to avoid further suffering, but was followed by the aggressor even though he was fully clothed. 

Police have now confirmed that an arrest has been made over the incident. According to The Mirror, a well-placed source said: “The two people involved have no fixed abode, live in caves and have problems of co-existence.” Another insider close to the investigation added: “Neither man, the victim of the beating or the aggressor, is a tourist. One is from Austria and the other is from the Netherlands. They are of no fixed abode and live in caves.”

The video went viral after it was uploaded onto Facebook. Police reportedly intervened in the attack and arrested the perpetrator, who claimed he was taking the law into his own hands. The force has yet to officially confirm the nationality of the detainee but he is thought to be the Dutch national.