Barcelona: 13 killed as van rams crowds in Las Ramblas

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BBC

August 17 2017

 

At least 13 people have died and 80 were injured after a van ploughed into crowds in Barcelona's famous Las Ramblas tourist area, police and local officials say.

The vehicle sped along the pedestrian area, mowing down people and sending others fleeing for cover.

Police are treating the incident as terrorism.

The head of the Catalan region said two people had been arrested over the attack.

Spanish media are reporting another suspect died in a shootout. El Mundo newspaper said the shootout happened in Sant Just Lesvern, on the outskirts of the city.

 

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[Valin]

Daily Mail

 

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Two men, a Spanish national and a Moroccan, have been arrested, but neither was at the wheel of the Fiat van which mounted the pavement and sped into crowds of pedestrians.

Less than 24 hours earlier, an explosion at a house in Alcanar, 125 miles south of Barcelona, is believed to have been caused by butane canisters linked to the terror attack. A terror cell is thought to have been planning to fill the van with explosives.

El Periodico reported that documents discovered among the debris showed those who were living there were plotting the attack in Barcelona. 

 

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Photos and vids at link

[Valin]

What we know so far

August 18 2017

Claire Phipps

 

A third suspect has been arrested on Friday morning in Ripoll, north of Barcelona. Driss Oukabir, originally named as the suspect, was arrested in the same town on Thursday. He is reported to have told police that his identity documents were stolen before they were used to rent the van.

Here is what we know about the related terror attacks that took place on Thursday and Friday:

Cambrils

• A second terror attack took place in Cambrils, a coastal town around 120km from Barcelona, in the early hours of Friday morning.
• Six bystanders and one police officer were injured – two seriously – when they were reportedly deliberately hit by a car. An overturned Audi A3, with its back window smashed, was pictured at the scene.
• Police officers shot dead five suspects, some of whom were wearing what appeared to be explosive belts.
• Javier Zaragoza, the head of the Audiencia Nacional, the court that deals with terror offences, said on Friday that those killed had no known links to jihadism

Barcelona

• Authorities say the Cambrils attack is linked to the terrorist assault on Barcelona on Thursday, when a man drove a van into pedestrians in Las Ramblas, killing 13 people and injuring 100 more.
• The driver escaped the scene and remains at large.
• Two suspects arrested on Thursday are being held on suspicion of links to the Barcelona attack, but police say neither of them is the driver.
• A second van that was believed to have been used as a getaway vehicle for the Barcelona attacker was found abandoned in Vic, 80km away.
• Isis has claimed responsibility for the attack in Las Ramblas, but this could not be verified.

Alcanar

• Officials are also linking the two attacks to an earlier explosion that destroyed a house in Alcanar, killing one person and wounding at least one more. Police now say they believe explosives were being prepared at the property.
• Alcanar is around 200km (124 miles) from Barcelona and 90km (56 miles) from Cambrils.
• Sant Just Desvern
• On Thursday, a shootout at a police roadblock in a town close to Barcelona left a man dead. Police said it was not connected to the attack in Las Ramblas.
• On Friday morning, it emerged that the dead man – the owner of the car – was not in the driver’s seat and had in fact been stabbed to death.
• A hunt is now underway for the person driving the car to the roadblock.
• It is possible that this incident is also linked to the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, and the explosion in Alcanar.

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The Latest: Police: Spain suspects all dead or under arrest

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The Latest on the aftermath of the Spain attacks (all times local):

7:05 p.m.

The police chief for Spain’s Catalonia region says the extremist cell suspected of carrying out last week’s fatal van attacks has been broken now that the 12 members authorities had identified are all accounted for.

Regional police chief Josep Luis Trapero made the assessment after two of his officers shot and killed the one suspect who was thought to still be at large on Monday.

Trapero says four of the men responsible for the attacks that left 15 dead are under arrest.

He says another eight are dead themselves: five who were shot dead by police in the resort town of Cambrils and two others who were killed when a house exploded the night before the Barcelona attack.

Trapero says an imam was one of the suspects who died in the explosion.