A 53-year-old Moroccan man has been remanded in custody after allegedly killing a 31-year-old friend in Pilar de la Horadada, Alicante. The Guardia Civil said he attempted to disguise the crime as a road accident by placing the body near an AP-7 slip road.

Emergency services were alerted at around 9pm on 23 April after the suspect claimed to have found his friend’s body inside a large concrete drainage pipe beneath the road. Initial observations suggested he may have been run over, but a post-mortem carried out the following day confirmed he died violently between 19 and 20 April from repeated blows with a cylindrical wooden object.

Homicide officers from Alicante launched Operation Yalzaq and focused on the man who reported the discovery. He was detained near his home, around 300 metres from where the body was found, allegedly attempting to flee on a bicycle with his belongings and passport.

Officers recovered a one-metre wooden hoe handle measuring four centimetres in diameter, which tested positive for biological traces, and a 12cm knife from the suspect’s home. According to investigators, he later confessed, claiming he acted after the victim threatened him during an argument. A court in Orihuela has ordered his imprisonment pending trial.