Barcelona Terror Attack: 2 dead as van ploughs into people, many hurt
BARCELONA: Atleast two people are believed to have been killed and dozens injured after a van in Barcelona ploughed into pedestrians and two men entered a restaurant with guns.
Pictures and video emerging from the scene show police cars and ambulances near the Las Ramblas, a busy tree-lined promenade in the centre of the city. Gunfire was heard at the Corte Ingles store in the area after police announced a ‘massive crash’.
It is believed the van hit pedestrians outside of a kosher restaurant named ‘Maccabi’.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing people running away and screaming after the incident happened.
LAS RAMBLAS: Atleast two people are believed to have been killed and dozens injured after a van in Barcelona ploughed into pedestrians and two men entered a restaurant with guns.
Pictures and video emerging from the scene show police cars and ambulances near the Las Ramblas, a busy tree-lined promenade in the centre of the city.
Gunfire was heard at the Corte Ingles store in the area after police announced a ‘massive crash’.
It is believed the van hit pedestrians outside of a kosher restaurant named ‘Maccabi’.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing people running away and screaming after the incident happened.
Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy said he is in contact with all emergency services and stressed the priority is to help the injured.
Armed police have also been seen rushing into the area while emergency services have asked to close Metro and train stations in the city.
One witness told Sky News: ‘It was quite terrifying. All of a sudden scores of people ran towards us, hysterical, children hysterical... first of all they said someone had been shot.
‘All of a sudden a second wave of people came down the street, we just ran, I lost my husband in the melee. The shops went into lockdown mode.’ She added: ‘We really had no idea what was going on other than that we needed to get ourselves out of there very quickly... there was just hundreds of people running away very quickly.’ Another said: ‘We were just told to run, it must have been quite close because... there was an immediate stampede to run away. We were just a minute away from it.’
The local police force was said to be evacuating the area including the nearby main square the Plaza de Catalunya.
El Periodico said the CIA had warned local police two months ago that La Rambla could be the scene of a terrorist attack.
‘Huge collision on Las Ramblas in Barcelona by an individual driving a van, many injuries,’ a statement from Catalan police said. Aamer Anwar was walking down Las Ramblas at the time, which he said was ‘jam-packed’ with tourists.
He told Sky News: ‘All of a sudden, I just sort of heard a crashing noise and the whole street just started to run, screaming. I saw a woman right next to me screaming for her kids. ‘Police were very, very quickly there, police officers with guns, batons, everywhere. Then the whole street started getting pushed back.’ Anwar described the scene as ‘chaos’, with everyone in ‘panic mode’.
He added: ‘Police officers who got there just started screaming at people to move back, move back.
‘One of the shopkeepers tried to speak to him. He said he saw five or six people seriously injured on the ground, a van had driven into people.
‘And literally within probably 30 seconds, police vans, ambulances, police officers with guns, were piling out and we were being sectioned off and then being pushed rapidly back down Ramblas.’
Authorities in the area have warned people from visiting the busy tourist hotspot.
A van deliberately ploughed into dozens of people in the centre of Barcelona this evening in what the police have described as a ‘terror attack’