Northern Spain blast now believed to be shooting, security chief says

Police cordon off the area where a man and a woman died in a suspected bomb blast related to gender violence, according to the Basque regional security department, in Orio, northern Spain, May 16, 2023. REUTERS/Vincent West

MADRID (Reuters) - Police investigating what at first seemed like an explosion in northern Spain that killed a man and a woman now believe it was a murder-suicide with a sawn-off shotgun, authorities said on Wednesday.

According to Basque regional security chief Josu Erkoreka, a man with a hidden "manipulated firearm" is presumed to have shot his ex-partner before turning the gun on himself when they met on Tuesday near her home in the fishing town of Orio.