The homeless Bulgarian who decapitated a British woman in Tenerife yesterday thought he was 'a prophet of god', it emerged today.Local mayor José Reverón said the 28-year-old man was a bizarre individual who was known to police and had a history of intimidating passers-by on the street for yesterday's horrifying attack.
The unnamed man was reportedly released from a psychiatric hospital in February and had a history of violent behaviour before brutally killing the 62-year-old Briton in a shopping centre in Los Cristianos yesterday.
He was reportedly admitted to the psychiatric unit after knocking a stranger's teeth out on the street.
As Mayor Reverón said the incident was 'the most horrific crime to hit the resort in recent years', questions were raised about why Spanish authorities had allowed the attacker to wander the streets.
Local media named the man under arrest as Deyan Valentinov D, only giving the initial for his surname as is customary in Spanish newspaper reports.
After the attack, the man reportedly ran out into the street covered in blood, carrying his victim's head and telling passers-by: 'This is my treasure'.
He also shouted: 'God is on Earth,' according to local news site CanariasalDia.com, quoting Mayor Reverón, who said the killer lived in a 'semi-abandoned' house.
Wine merchant David Scott, 41, said the attacker spent most days sitting 50 yards from the scene of the attack 'talking to himself and gesticulating wildly'.
'He was very disturbed and intimidating, the sort of person you would cross the road to avoid,' he added.
Canary Islands political representative Dominica Fernandez was quoted by the news site as saying that the alleged killer was disturbed and had 'chosen his victim by chance'.
The man, who had a previous record for causing bodily injury, struck at 10:30 am local time in the supermarket, which forms part of the Valdes Centre shopping center of Arona, police said.
Other news reports said the man had been in a psychiatric hospital for knocking out a man's two front teeth in a random street attack and had only been released in February but this could not immediately be confirmed. Read More
