"it´s an agony". This is how Ignacio Echeverría´s family defined it, the young man from Asturias whose location is unknown since last Saturday night, when he was last seen while he was trying to fend off the attack of three jihadist terrorists on a woman in London bridge. Ignacio Echeverría´s father, Joaquín, from Oviedo, and his wife, flew yesterday at midday to the British capital city to follow up the verifications by the British police authorities. "The British authorities have asked us 24 or 48 hours longer", revealed yesterday his brother in his Facebook account, where he took the opportunity to thank the management performed by the Spanish authorities, from the diplomatic delegation to the Foreign Office.
"There is no news", assured yesterday evening a spokesman from the Diplomatic Information Office to LA NUEVA ESPAÑA after becoming known that Ignacio Echeverría was one of the seven fatal victims from the terrorist attack. "The fingerprints sent to the British authorities are being checked but we have no information so far about the results", added the same sources to this newspaper. His DNA is also being checked to confirm if it corresponds to any of the four fatal victims which are still pending identification. The missing man´s brother, Joaquín Echeverría, admitted, also in the social networks, that it was no "good sign" that Great Britain demanded the fingerprints and in his message of appreciation to the Spanish authorities he emphasised the "terrible moments" the family was going through.
Joaquín Echeverría expressed "the greatest gratitude" from his family to the personnel of the Spanish Embassy and Consulate in London, in special to the ambassador, Carlos Basterreche; the consul, José Riera; the Foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis; and the Interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido. He also remarked the "exquisite and delicate constant attention in these last two days, even at early hours of the morning" of the Ministry officials who had attended them in the last days, of great anguish for all the family, which his brother in law echoed through another Twitter message: "The families of the London Bridge attack victims feel mistreated due to the lack of information, which leads to an unnecessary agony. 63 hours and no news yet", he wrote yesterday evening Fernando Vergara, who also lives in London with one of the sisters of the missing man.
The English media have already baptised Joaquín Echeverría as "the skateboard hero" as he was skating with some friends when he saw the attack on a woman, to whom he tried to defend from the terrorists. "In this moment, he jumped off his bicycle and hit the aggressor with a skateboard while the other two terrorists attacked him from behind and he laid on the floor. He was brave, he got into it to defend a woman" told his family yesterday.
Five people, among them Ignacio Echeverría, are yet to be found after the attack. Out of the 48 wounded people taken to hospitals, 36 remain in hospital yet, 18 of them in critical conditions, according to the police, which also explains that the identification of the rest of the victims is being slowed down as some of them are foreigners. The 21-year-old Australian woman Sara Zelenak is one of the missing people, as well as the French man Xavier Thomas, who was last seen in the area of the attacks.
