Ignacio Echeverría is said to have confronted one of the assailants and has not been heard from since

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Relatives of Ignacio Echeverría, the 39-year-old Spaniard missing since the London Bridge attacks three days ago, have joined the Spanish government in asking British authorities why it is taking so long to find out what has happened to him.



Echeverría, who is from Madrid but lives in London and works for HSBC, has been hailed as a hero for apparently using his skateboard to take on the London Bridge attackers.

He is thought to have been skateboarding in a park when he stopped to defend a woman who had been injured in the attack near Borough Market. Friends who were with him at the time said he fell to the ground after confronting one of the assailants. He has not been heard from since.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday evening, Echeverría’s brother Joaquín said the family had still heard nothing and that the British authorities had told them they might have to wait 24 or 48 hours for information.



Fernando Vergara, who is understood to be Echeverría’s brother-in-law, said the delay in establishing the missing man’s fate was unacceptable.

In a tweet sent to the Downing Street account, he wrote:

Fernando Vergara (@fernanvergara) @Number10gov families of the victims of LB attacks feel mistreated by lack of information leading to unnecessary agony. 63 hrs still no news

Echeverría’s family have made numerous appeals for information on social media, and his sister Isabel has spent hours trying to visit hospitals in London in the hope of finding her brother alive.

She told the news site El Confidencial that Theresa May’s government “isn’t giving out information because of how close the election is”.

Writing on Facebook, she thanked the Spanish airline Iberia for organising flights to bring her family to London and praised HSBC and the Spanish consulate in London for their support.

The Spanish foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis, spoke to his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, on Monday night to ask for efforts to identify victims of the attack to be stepped up so as not to “add to the pain and anguish of the families”.



Dastis told the Spanish news agency Efe: “We’re pushing the British authorities because, frankly, this isn’t the kind of thing that can go on and on.”



Johnson apparently told Dastis that the process was moving as fast as possible but added that procedures needed to be followed to prevent misidentification.

The missing man’s parents flew to London on Tuesday to join other relatives and await news. Ignacio’s father, Joaquín Echeverría, said the authorities had not shared any information with them and he feared the worst.



“We’ve had no news and at the moment, given that the wounded have been identified, I’m very pessimistic,” the Spanish daily El País reported him as saying. “By now you would have thought he’d have been identified and it seems he’s not among the wounded.”

A spokesman for Spain’s foreign ministry told the Guardian on Tuesday evening that despite pressing the British government to expedite its inquiries, it had no update on Echeverría’s condition or whereabouts.