This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Spanish police are investigating an apparent break-in at the North Korean embassy in Madrid, during which staff were reportedly bound and gagged by attackers who later made off with computers.

According to the online newspaper El Confidencial, the group of unidentified men entered the embassy in the west of the capital last Friday and held staff hostage.

The newspaper said the alarm was raised by a woman who managed to free herself and run into the street, calling for help.

Through an interpreter, she told police: “A group of men came into the embassy and has gagged the staff.”

El Confidencial said a police officer dispatched to the embassy was told everything was fine by a man who answered the door, but moments later, “the gates swung open … and two high-end cars came out at great speed, leaving the area within seconds”.

A spokeswoman for the national police said the force would not be commenting, but added that no one had filed a complaint at a police station.

The interior ministry said police were investigating an incident, but gave no details except to say a North Korean citizen had been injured. It also said no one had reported the incident at a police station.

The newspaper said the attackers had taken away computers belonging to various staff members, and police were trying to find out what information they may have contained and what else might be missing.

“Basically, the information that El Confidencial describes is how the events unfolded,” a foreign ministry source said.

An interior ministry source told Reuters that police were not ruling out any motive, including robbery.

Spain was among a group of countries that expelled North Korean ambassadors in 2017. The interior and foreign ministry sources said the highest-ranking North Korean official accredited in Spain was a trade attache.

Reuters could not reach any representative of North Korea in Spain. El Confidencial said it had contacted an official, who declined to comment.

The Spanish foreign ministry said it had learned of the incident through the police, who were now investigating the matter. The ministry also said it had been in touch with the North Korean embassy since last Friday.

Reuters contributed to this report