Spain on alert
Hunt for driver after terror strikes heart of Catalonia
pain has mounted a sweeping antiterrorism operation after 14 people were killed in attacks in Catalonia yesterday. A suspected Islamist militant drove a van into crowds in Barcelona, killing 13 people, and a woman died after a car was driven into a crowd hours later in the seaside town of Cambrils.
Police believe they were part of a planned wave of attacks.
Isis ( Islamic State) claimed responsibility for the deadly rampage along Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s most famous avenue yesterday, which was packed with tourists taking an afternoon stroll. The death toll could rise, with more than 100 injured, authorities said.
As security forces hunted for the van’s driver, who was seen escaping on foot, police said they had killed five attackers in Cambrils, a town south of Barcelona, to thwart a separate attack using explosive belts. Police said the belts turned out to be fake.
Six people were injured in Cambrils when the attackers ran them over in a car, before police shot them dead and carried out controlled explosions. One of the injured, a woman, later died.
Police said the Cambrils incident was linked to the van attack in Barcelona.
Before the van ploughed into the treelined walkway of Las Ramblas, one person was killed in an explosion in a house in a separate town southwest of Barcelona, police said. Residents there were preparing explosives, a police source added.
Police said they had arrested a Moroccan and a man from Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla, though neither was the van driver. A third man was arrested in the town of Ripoll in connection with the attack.
It was not clear how many people had been involved in the van attack and other incidents.