Security tightened at Spain’s Tomatina fest
Morocco arrests suspect
BUÑOL, Aug 30, (Agencies): Extra police were deployed at Spain’s annual “Tomatina” tomato throwing festival in the eastern town of Bunol on Wednesday in the wake of the deadly twin vehicle attacks in Catalonia. A total of 740 security forces were on duty, including police officers, firefighters and ambulance workers, an increase of around five percent over the same time last year, according to Bunol city hall.
In addition, police cars were parked at the entrance to the town’s narrow streets, where half-naked revellers pelted each other with tomatoes during the hourlong festivities, to prevent unauthorised vehicles from entering.
“The security apparatus was reinforced and adapted following the attacks” in Barcelona and the nearby seaside resort of Cambrils that killed 16 people, Juan Carlos Moragues, the central government’s representative in the region of Valencia, told reporters.
The iconic fiesta — which celebrates its 72nd anniversary and is billed at “the world’s biggest food fight” — has become a major draw for foreigners, in particular from Britain, Japan and the United States.
The bang of fireworks set off the bedlam at 11:00 am. Revellers, many wearing just bathing suits and goggles, bent down to pick up tomatoes from the ground to throw while others lay in the pulp.
Some 160 tonnes of ripe tomatoes were offloaded from trucks into a crowd of 22,000 people, about twothirds of them foreigners.
The town of around 10,000 people has since 2013 charged non-residents a participation fee to control the growing crowds who flock to the event.
The Tomatina started in 1945 when locals brawling in the street at a folk festival grabbed tomatoes from a greengrocer’s stall and let loose.
Meanwhile, Moroccan authorities have arrested a man suspected of supplying gas canisters to a jihadist cell that carried out a double attack in Catalonia earlier this month that killed 16 people, a source from the Spanish investigation said.
The cell accumulated around 120 canisters of butane gas at a house in a town south of Barcelona with which, police say, it planned to carry out a larger bomb attack.
Police believe the cell accidentally ignited the explosives on Aug. 16, the eve of the Barcelona attack, triggering a blast that destroyed the house in the town of Alcanar.
The remaining attackers then decided to use hired vans to mow down crowds along Barcelona’s most famous avenue and later mount an assault in the resort town of Cambrils.
Moroccan police arrested the man in the city of Casablanca, the source said, without giving further details.
Spain’s interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, said on Tuesday that Moroccan authorities had arrested two people linked to the attacks but declined to give details about them.
Spanish news agency EFE said the second man was arrested in the city of Oujda and was a relative of one of the members of the Barcelona cell. The source did not confirm that.
Zoido
Finland studies suspects’ ‘manifesto’:
Finnish police are studying a handwritten note they believe will offer clues to what motivated a 22-year old Moroccan asylum seeker to kill two women in a knife attack.
Abderrahman Bouanane, who is in pre-trial detention pending an investigation into alleged murder with terrorist intent, told a court last week he was responsible for the Aug 18 attack but denied his motive was terrorism.
Detective Inspector Olli Toyras, from Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation, said police found the note in Bouanane’s backpack
“It is an important part of understanding his motives,” Toyras told Reuters on Tuesday. “You could call it a manifesto, it reflects the writer’s thoughts.”
Police declined to comment on the contents of the note, or if it included political messages or references to extremist organisations.
Dutch man remains in custody:
A man arrested in connection with a suspected terror plot against a Rotterdam concert venue will remain in custody for another two weeks as the probe continues, a Dutch judge ruled Wednesday.
The man, identified by the Dutch media as “Jimmy F.”, 22, was arrested last Thursday in a pre-dawn raid following the threat that triggered a major security alert.
“The suspect from Zevenbergen is to remain in custody for another 14 days,” the Rotterdam District Court said in a tweet on its Twitter feed.
His arrest followed a tip-off by the Spanish police a week ago, after they spotted a message on the Telegram chat-app about a possible terror attack at a music venue in Rotterdam where the US rock group the Allah-Las were scheduled to play last Wednesday.
Telegram is a smartphone app which has often been used by Islamic extremists due to its encrypted messaging service.
Dutch media said the message appeared to have been posted online by the suspect, with some newspapers suggesting it may have been a prank which backfired, or that the suspect belongs to a self-appointed group that tries to unmask jihadists.
Dutch Justice Minister Stef Blok last week denounced the suspect’s actions as “idiotic” fuelling doubts over the authenticity of the threat.
2 militants killed in Kyrgyzstan:
Kyrgyzstan said Tuesday that two militants were killed and one was injured in a shootout with police who also claimed to have foiled a terror plot in the Central Asian country.
Kyrgyzstan’s State National Security Service (GKNB) claimed its officers killed two members of “an armed terrorist group” that had planned attacks ahead of the former Soviet Republic’s independence day.
One accomplice of the pair was hospitalised in the clash, while another suspected plotter had been detained the day before, the GKNB said in a statement.
The same group had threatened traffic police with a pistol and a grenade after being pulled over for a routine inspection last week before driving off, the GKNB said.
In photos released by the security service, two corpses appear to be lying in a field along with a knife and a firearm.
The GKNB said the group was planning attacks in the capital Bishkek and surrounding region using “homemade explosives” during the independence holiday beginning Aug 31.