OVIEDO, Spain — A Spanish National Police officer was killed and a bomb-disposal officer was seriously injured on Tuesday morning when a suspicious backpack exploded as police examined it in the northern city of Oviedo, in Asturias, the National Police and local authorities said. The officers had been called to the Villafría neighbourhood after a separate shooting in which a young woman was wounded.

Source: BBC News, Nov 10 2026

The National Police paid tribute to the dead officer on X, naming him only as Juan José and saying he belonged to the force's Special Canine Unit. "We are devastated by the death of our colleague Juan José, from the Special K-9 Unit, which occurred while he was inspecting a suspicious backpack in Asturias," the police statement said, adding that an officer from the TEDAX-NRBQ bomb-disposal and CBRN unit was injured during the same operation.

The sequence began at around 7:30 a.m. local time, according to Spanish media reports, when neighbours reported gunfire in Villafría and a young woman was shot and injured. She was taken to the Central University Hospital of Asturias (HUCA). A spokesperson for the local council told Reuters the woman was no longer in danger, without providing further details. Reuters reported that local authorities described the incident as a neighbourhood dispute between two families that turned violent.

Officers who responded to the shooting found a suspicious backpack in the entrance of a residential building on Rafael Urrusti Street and called in specialists to examine it, local media reported. The device inside exploded at roughly 8:40 to 9:00 a.m., while the canine-unit officer was inspecting the bag, killing him at the scene and seriously injuring the TEDAX officer beside him, according to the police account and Spanish press reports.

The injured bomb-disposal officer was taken to the Central University Hospital of Asturias. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that he suffered the amputation of a leg; that detail has not been confirmed in the National Police's own statement, which described him only as injured during the operation. The police union JUPOL also confirmed one officer dead and another seriously injured in a statement on social media.

Police cordoned off the area around Rafael Urrusti Street as investigators worked at the scene on Tuesday. Spanish media reported that police were searching for the man alleged to have shot the young woman and fled; no arrest had been announced in the reports available by mid-morning, and police had not publicly linked a named suspect to the explosive device.

Oviedo's mayor, Alfredo Canteli, was travelling to the scene to gather information, local reports said, as investigators worked to establish the full circumstances of both the shooting and the explosion — two linked incidents that turned a neighbourhood dispute callout into one of the deadliest days for Spain's National Police in recent years.

What happens next: the National Police investigation will have to establish who left the device in the building entrance, whether it was meant for the officers who found it, and how it connects to the shooting that brought police to Villafría. Further official updates are expected from the police and the Asturias authorities as the injured officer is treated and the search for the alleged gunman continues.