Brit ambushed by masked gunman as he arrived back at Spanish home with partner

A was pulled from a British man to stop him bleeding to death after he was shot by a masked gunman in .

The 27-year-old was hit twice, in the knee and his side, in the ambush in the village of Santiago de la Ribera on the Mar Menor near La Manga resort as he arrived home with his partner. Two local police officers have been credited with saving his life by using their own hands to plug the bullet wounds and stop him bleeding to death at the scene. He was said to be “very serious” when he was rushed to .

The victim was initially reported to be a Ukrainian national before investigators confirmed he was a British national. The violent attack happened around 8.30pm yesterday. Neighbours said they thought initially the shots that rang out were firecrackers kids were playing with before the first police cars and ambulances arrived.

The gunman is said to have shot the unnamed Brit from behind outside the entrance to an apartment block where he lives before fleeing the scene in a car later thought to have been set on fire and abandoned in a tunnel on the nearby AP-7 motorway. An accomplice is believed to have been driving the getaway vehicle.

Police sources say they are keeping an open mind on the motive for the attack, although there is nothing pointing to it being a bungled robbery at this stage. The spot where the shooting happened is just a 20-minute drive north of the area where and a third was critically injured on Saturday night after their hire car was hit by a speedboat which came loose from a trailer on the back of another vehicle in front of them.

The accident on the RM-12, a dual carriageway known colloquially as La Manga motorway, caused a massive pile-up involving around half a dozen cars. The driver of the vehicle with the boat on the back, a suspected ‘narco lancha’ used by drug smugglers, fled the scene.

The police force hunting him, the Civil Guard, is the same one that is investigating yesterday night’s shooting.