Spanish soldiers are under investigation after organising a raffle with a prostitute as the top prize, it has been reported.
The scandal unfolded on Thursday after the Catalan newspaper Ara claimed it had seen messages exchanged in a WhatsApp group with around 70 squaddies from the El Bruc barracks in the Pedralbes neighbourhood of Barcelona.
The soldiers all paid € 25 (£21.60) for a dinner set for Thursday night to commemorate Immaculate Conception Day, a Bank Holiday in Spain.
They are said to have been automatically included in the raffle along with those who weren't attending the meal but paid a smaller fee to enter the raffle.
Photos of the escort being touted as the winning prize, with the services she offered, were reportedly published in the WhatsApp group and a poster with pics of her was put up in the staff canteen.
The money raised in the raffle was due to go towards festivities organised during the year by the regiment at the centre of the scandal, which has been identified as I/63.
The authorities were alerted after one of the soldiers in the WhatsApp group turned into a whistleblower because of his disgust at what was being planned.
Barcelona Mayoress Ada Colau expressed her outrage as news of the sordid raffle went public and is now calling for an “urgent probe” over claims it represents an affront to the values of a public institution.
She said: “As a woman and the mayoress of a proudly feminist city I feel there needs to be a profound change so these types of attitudes don’t have any place in a public institution.”
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska was questioned by journalists as he arrived for a Cabinet meeting and said: “I am unaware of the issue but it sounds appalling.
“If it happened as reported, it would be something I would condemn and like to see investigated.”
Immaculate Conception Day is a Roman Catholic holiday observed every year on December 8 in Spain to commemorate the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary.
In Spain, this day is one of two national holidays that falls just a day apart and heralds the beginning of the Christmas season.
Army chiefs say they have informed state prosecutors so they can decide whether or not to launch a formal probe.
