A Briton, known to the police, has been arrested in connection with the theft of a Guardia Civil pistol from a hotel room safe in Palmanova.
The crime was committed on Wednesday evening while an officer with the Guardia Civil, part of the summer security operation, was out having dinner. He had left his standard issue Beretta in the safe of his hotel room in which he was staying in Palmanova. While he was out, the Briton apparently broke into the hotel room and the safe and stole the pistol.
When the officer returned to his room and realised what had happened, he raised the alarm. The Guardia Civil in Calvia mounted an immediate operation, bearing in mind that Spain is currently on level 4 security alert in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in France and Germany - level 5 is the maximum.
The Guardia combed through hours and hours of video footage caught by CCTV cameras in the area and eventually recognised a Briton who apparently has a history for robbing hotels. They raided his house but found no trace of him. But after speaking to friends and contacts they managed to locate and arrest him.
The weapon was subsequently recovered and he was today taken back to the hotel to take part in a reconstruction of the crime. He remains in custody.