YET another homeowner facing repossession has committed suicide – a 56-year-old man who is the second in the Basque Country since September and the sixth in Spain in the same time.

His electricity and water had already been cut off because he could not afford to pay the bills as he was unable to find work, say members of the pressure group Stop Desahucios ('stop evictions') in the Basque province of Vizcaya.

The victim, who lived in the town of Basauri, had left a note for his family saying he 'could not cope any more'.

Stop Desahucios has not given details of the deceased's identity, nor how he committed suicide, but they said he had made contact with their office in the town of Sestao and was due to pop in and chat to them.

Amaia Egaña, a woman in her 50s from the same province, living in Barakaldo, killed herself by jumping out of a fourth-floor window in early November just as her home was about to be repossessed.

Another three people, all in their 50s, committed suicide between September and Christmas for the same reasons – two by jumping out of a window and a third by hanging himself.

The most recent victim was at the end of last week, a 36-year-old father with an eight-year-old daughter who hurled himself out of his window just as the bank foreclosed on his mortgage.





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