Terror comes again
Many New Zealanders will know Las Ramblas, one of the most pleasant streets in one of the finest cities in the world, Barcelona.
The Rambla, as English-speaking tourists call it, is a tree-lined boulevard with fine buildings and alleys disappearing to its side, and street entertainment in every block.
It is thronged with people.
It was a prime target for vehicle terrorism of the type seen in Nice last year, then Berlin, Westminster, London Bridge and now in Barcelona.
These are just one of dozens of random acts of terrorism committed with a vehicle, but each one causes a shudder at the ease with which it can be done.
No explosives are required, no elaborate plans to plant a bomb, no suicide vests and volunteers for martyrdom. Just an ordinary van and a driver.
Cities are doing their best to guard against them. It is now common to see bollards at the entrance to pedestrian precincts. Many other barriers are disguised so well they look like street furniture. But they will be solid enough to stop a motor vehicle.
But they will not deter the solitary psychotic, the so-called “lone wolf”, lacking access to more sophisticated weapons, using a vehicle to make a murderous mark on a society he hates.
Lone wolves are always male. If females are involved in terrorism they are likely to have company, as in Germany’s “red brigades” 50 years ago.
A few hours after the van ploughed into people in Barcelona on Thursday afternoon local time, killing 14 people, the same thing happened in a town 100km away. Seven died before Spanish police killed five attackers in a shoot-out.
So clearly it was not a lone wolf attack. The van had multiple occupants and they were wearing explosive belts, according to police.
The fading “Islamic State” was quick to claim its “soldiers” had carried out the attack in Barcelona but it is an easy claim to make.
Sadly, there seems to be no shortage of alienated young Middle Eastern migrants, or sons of migrants, in European cities who do not need a signal from Isis to strike at the West.
There is a limit to what bollards, counter-terrorism and shoot-outs can do to stop this scourge. It will end when migrant communities find their feet, which eventually, they do.