A FORMER soldier who murdered six people at random in Madrid in eight weeks has told police that he did it because he “wanted to know what it felt like to take life”.

Alfredo Galán, 26, a paratrooper corporal who was receiving psychiatric treatment after serving in Bosnia, gave himself up in Puertollano, 150 miles south of Madrid. “I wanted to show how easy it is to kill,” he allegedly told police.

The capital was terrorised by the “playing card killer” who left behind a card from a traditional Spanish deck, whose suits are chalices, swords, coins and truncheons.

Galán left the Army earlier this year, taking a job as a security guard, but by then his killing spree had allegedly begun. Yesterday’s national newspapers published details of police interviews with him over the weekend. Police are searching a rubbish dump in Puertollano, where he says that he threw away the murder weapon, a Russian pistol which he bought from a Bosnian criminal in Mostar.

Under Spanish law, Galán’s confession is not sufficient to charge him and further proof is required. However, the mass of detail published yesterday about him seems to leave no doubt that he is the man who shot dead six people and wounded two others between January 24 and March 18.

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El Mundo printed remarks made by Galán to the police in which he allegedly said: “I wanted to know what it feels like when you kill someone. I was sitting in front of the TV and I suddenly had the impulse to go out and look for targets to kill. I said to myself, ‘The first person I come across when there’s nobody around will get it’.”

Asked what he felt when he killed, Galán is alleged to have answered: “Indifference.”

His demeanour was described as cold, dispassionate and arrogant. For six hours he gave police precise details on how and where he killed, adding that after each one, “I went home and ate or had a siesta.”

He allegedly said that a postwoman was to have been his first victim but he failed to corner her while alone. Instead, he turned to Juan Francisco, 50, who was playing alone with his two-year-old son.

He told police that he ordered him to his knees against a wall. The pistol jammed. He cleared it and shot him through the back of his head, in front of the little boy.

His next victim was a man aged 28, again shot through the back of the head as he stood at a bus stop. He described the interior of a bar where he shot a youth aged 18 in the forehead and a woman aged 57 through an eye. He finally tired of the game and gave himself up.

Galán was due to appear before a judge in Puertollano yesterday evening, when it was expected that he would be put in custody while the investigation continues.