A suspected terrorist accused of stabbing three people in Madrid before attacking police, shouting “Allahu Akbar”, reportedly told his mum he was on a mission to “kill Christians.” The 18-year-old Spaniard of Moroccan origin remains in hospital after being tasered and shot by anti-terror police when he holed himself up in a flat following the triple stabbing and violently resisted attempts to arrest him.

A judge at Spain’s central criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, is now investigating the incidents on Saturday afternoon as suspected Islamic terrorist crimes. Overnight, Spanish news website El Español said officers had told the judge the teenager – now under police guard at Madrid’s Gregorio Marañón Hospital – had told his mum his mission “was to kill Christians and he had to cleanse himself.”

Other reports today said detectives were investigating whether the suspect – who has so far been identified only by his first name of Mohammed – had consumed synthetic drug Captagon, which is known to have been used by ISIS fighters in Syria to make themselves feel invincible.

Footage published late on Monday (November 24) showed the teenager being stretchered out of the property in the Madrid neighbourhood of Puente de Vallecas, where he was taken into custody on Saturday afternoon (November 22). As well as being accused of trying to attack officers with a large knife he was carrying, he is also said to have recited verses from the Quran before being overpowered.

The siege ended around 4.30pm on Saturday, with the terror suspect being shot four times by police after their Taser guns failed to stop him, with one bullet perforating his lung and another hitting him in the kidney.

The drama leading up to the shooting began to unfold around 2pm on Saturday in a street called Martin Alvarez Street in Puente de Vallecas when police received reports that a man had stabbed three people, including an elderly lady and a 40-year-old male, who had suffered a two-inch knife wound to his chest.

A couple of hours later, the suspect’s brother rang the police to say he was holed up inside his home with a large knife and was acting very aggressively. Cops categorised it as an “Islamist terrorist incident” and sent officers from an elite unit specialising in demonstration and anti-terrorist operations to surround the property.

Afterwards, Police union JUPOL said: “We want to show all our support to the companions who acted to neutralise a radicalised young man who had attacked three other people.

“It was an absolutely proportionate response.”

Although it is being probed as a suspected Islamic terrorist incident, the man held is believed to have been under the influence of drugs. Neighbours speaking to Spanish media have insisted they believe the drugs he had consumed led to him behaving the way he did and have ruled out the idea he is an Islamic extremist.

One insisted that if he was reading verses from the Quran, it was only because he was “asking God for his help” after he saw he was surrounded by police and had no way out.

The stab victims received medical attention, but none of their injuries have been described as life-threatening.