A gunman who wounded four people and was seriously injured in a subsequent shootout with police has been euthanised in prison.

Eugen Sabau, 46, shot three of his colleagues at the security services firm where he worked in the northeastern city of Tarragona, and then wounded a police officer while making his escape.

After barricading himself in a house with an arsenal of weapons, a tactical police unit stormed the building, shooting him several times.

The “Gunslinger of Tarragona”, as the Spanish media referred to him, was left a tetraplegic, had one leg amputated, and the wounds caused chronic pain that could not be treated with painkillers due to his fragile state.

Courts allowed Sabau’s assisted death after rejecting several appeals by his victims who argued he had to face justice.

The case even reached Spain’s Constitutional Court, which refused to deliberate on it, saying there had been no violation of fundamental rights.

Spain legalised assisted dying just over a year ago.

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Before that, helping someone to end their life had carried a jail term of up to 10 years.

According to El Pais newspaper, since the law came into effect on 25 June, at least 172 people had used the right to assisted death.

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