5 killed as another attack foiled SIKHS IN SPAIN REACH OUT TO HELP VICTIMS
CLOSE CALL Suspects wearing ‘fake bomb belts’ shot dead by Spanish police
Police on Friday shot and killed five people wearing fake bomb belts who staged a car attack in a seaside resort in Spain’s Catalonia region hours after a van plowed into pedestrians on a busy Barcelona promenade, killing at least 13 people and injuring over 100 others.
Authorities said the back-toback vehicle attacks — as well as an explosion earlier this week elsewhere in Catalonia— were connected and the work of a large terrorist group. Three people were arrested, but the driver of the van used in the Barcelona attack remained at large and the manhunt intensified for the perpetrators of the latest European rampage claimed by the Islamic State group.
Authorities were still reeling from the Barcelona attack when police in Cambrils, about 130 km to the south, fatally shot five people near the town’s boardwalk who had plowed into a group of tourists and locals with their blue Audi 3. Six people, including a police officer, were injured.
Catalonia’s interior minister, Joaquim Forn, told Onda Cero radio that the five suspects killed in a subsequent shootout with police were wearing fake bomb belts. “They were fakes, but very well made, and it wasn’t until the bomb squad carried out the controlled explosion of one that they could determine they were fakes,” he said.
The Cambrils attack came hours after a white van veered onto Barcelona’s picturesque Las Ramblas promenade and mowed down pedestrians, zig-zagging down the strip packed with locals and tourists from around the world.
He told Onda Cero that the Cambrils and Barcelona attacks were being investigated together, as well as a Wednesday night explosion in the town of Alcanar in which one person was killed.
“We are not talking about a group of one or two people, but rather a numerous group,” he said.
The Barcelona attack at the peak of Spain’s tourist season left victims sprawled across the street, spattered with blood and writhing in pain from broken limbs. “It was clearly a terror attack, intended to kill as many people as possible,” Josep Lluis Trapero, a senior police official for Spain’s Catalonia region said.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility, saying on its Aamaq news agency that the attack was carried out by “soldiers of the Islamic State” in response to the group’s calls for followers to target countries participating in the coalition trying to drive it from Syria and Iraq.
Spanish news outlets named one of the detained as Driss Oukabir, but reports said he went to police in Ripoll to report that his identity documents had been stolen. Various Spanish media said the IDs with his name were found in the attack van and that he claimed his brother might have stolen them.
The Catalan regional government said people from 24 countries were among those killed and injured in Barcelona.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called the killings a “savage terrorist attack” and said Spaniards “are not just united in mourning, but especially in the firm determination to beat those who want to rob us of our values and our way of life.” An explosion at a house kills one person and wounds 16. Police say those in the house were attempting to “prepare an explosive device”
A white Fiat van ploughs into a crowd on Las Ramblas avenue, a popular tourist attraction, killing 13 people and injuring around 100
Second van, presumed to be a getaway vehicle, found
A man is killed when he attempts to drive through a police roadblock
Police arrest Driss Oukabir, but the Moroccan-born Spanish resident says his ID was stolen
A second unnamed suspect is arrested
Police kill five alleged terrorists after they drove an Audi A3 car into pedestrians, injuring six civilians and one police officer.
Police arrest two more suspects in connection with the attacks
The Sikh community rallied to offer shelter and food in gurdwaras after a van rammed into a crowd of pedestrians at Barcelona’s iconic Las Ramblas killing several and injuring more than 50 people.
Harjinder S Kukreja from Punjab tweeted the details of the gurdwaras that can offer shelter and food to those in need.
“If anyone needs shelter, food, Sikh houses of worship in the Spanish city are open for all,” Kukreja tweeted. His post was retweeted 4,500 times and more than 200 people commented on it.
Twitter users appreciated the “beautiful gesture” by the community to open their places of worship during emergencies. “As ever the #Sikh community is a credit to humanity at a time of unspeakable cruelty & tragedy (sic),” tweeted Chas Peeps.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed there is no report of any Indian casualty in the attack. In case of emergency, Indians can contact the Indian embassy in Spain at +34-608769335.
“I am in constant touch with Indian Embassy in Spain. As of now, there is no report of an Indian casualty,” Swaraj tweeted.
This isn’t the first time the Sikh community has stepped up to offer help following terror attacks. Gurdwaras in Britain offered food, water and shelter to tourists stranded after the attacks on London Bridge and the Borough Market in June, repeating the community’s widely appreciated help after the May 22 attack in Manchester.AGENCIES