A Spanish soccer fan travelling by foot from Madrid to Doha for subsequent month’s World Cup has gone lacking in Iran.
The household of Santiago Sanchez, an skilled trekker, former paratrooper and die-hard soccer fan has not been heard from since crossing into Iran three weeks in the past, his household stated Monday, stirring fears about his destiny in a rustic presently convulsed by mass unrest.
Mr Sanchez, 41, was final seen in Iraq after mountaineering by way of 15 international locations and extensively sharing his journey on a well-liked Instagram account over the past 9 months. However his exuberant posts stopped instantly on 1 October, the day he entered Iran from the nation’s unstable northwestern border.
Sanchez’s household says his every day WhatsApp updates stopped that day as nicely. Weeks later, they concern the worst.
“We’re deeply apprehensive, we will’t cease crying, my husband and I,” his mom, Celia Cogedor, informed The Related Press.
Sanchez’s mother and father have reported him as lacking to Spain’s nationwide police and the overseas ministry. However Spanish authorities say they haven’t any details about his whereabouts, including that the Spanish ambassador to Tehran was dealing with the matter.
Iran was his final cease earlier than reaching Qatar.
The biggest anti-government protests in over a decade are presently happening in Iran. Demonstrations erupted in September over the demise of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old lady taken into custody by Iran’s morality police for allegedly not adhering to the nation’s strict Islamic costume code.
Mr Sanchez had been trekking whereas carrying a small suitcase in a wheeled cart, filled with little greater than a tent, water purification tablets and a gasoline range for his 11 months on the street.
He stated he needed to find out how others lived by dwelling amongst them earlier than reaching Qatar in time for Spain’s first match on 23 November, in opposition to Costa Rica.
The day earlier than he disappeared, Sanchez had breakfast with a information in Sulaymaniyah, a Kurdish metropolis in northeastern Iraq. Sanchez’s mother and father stated he had warned them he’d quickly lose web entry after reaching Iran.
