Pregnant woman killed, baby saved

A gunman walked into a Catholic church in Spain and killed a pregnant woman said to have been his ex-girlfriend, then committed suicide.

But emergency crews performed a Caesarean section on the woman inside the church and saved the baby, a police spokesman said.

Another woman sitting near the victim was wounded by a stray bullet in the shooting, which occurred just before a Mass at St Mary’s Church in an affluent neighbourhood of Madrid, the National Police spokesman said.

The pregnant woman was just days away from giving birth.

The official said preliminary investigations indicated there was no relation between the 34-year-old man and the 36-year-old woman he killed.

Neither the man nor the woman were named and the motive for the attack was not immediately known. But the newspaper El Mundo said the man knelt before the altar of the church before he shot himself in the head and that he used to be the woman’s boyfriend.

The paper gave no source, and it was not clear if the child was his. El Mundo said the baby delivered in the emergency procedure was a boy.

It quoted witnesses as saying the shooting occurred as dozens of people were getting ready for the evening Mass and the parish priest was getting his gown on to conduct the service.