Gay couple recalls homophobic attack: ‘It's difficult to go out and stop being afraid’

In the early hours of June 24, as the city of Barcelona rejoiced in Saint John’s festivities, Yuri and Andree were on their way to the Fontana metro station, in the Gràcia neighborhood, when a man stopped them and asked for a lighter. He then looked at them carefully, and said: "I’m going to kill you, faggots." 

What followed was an "extremely violent" aggression, which left them physically injured and psychologically shocked. "For a moment I thought we would not survive," says Andree, recalling the incident in an interview with the Catalan News Agency.

They rushed to the metro station in an attempt to find shelter in the crowd, but nobody tried to stop the aggressor. "I can understand why people wouldn’t intervene because the degree of violence was brutal," explains Yuri.

When police arrived minutes later, the attacker had already fled. His identity remains unknown despite several people recording the scene with their mobile phones.