Terror cell smashed, says Spanish minister
MADRID: Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido says the terrorist cell behind the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils has been destroyed.
Spanish police killed five alleged perpetrators of a terrorist attack in the resort town of Cambrils on Friday, hours after a similar attack in Barcelona.
The news came after police launched a manhunt for the driver of a van who ploughed into crowds of people on one of Barcelona’s busiest thoroughfares, killing 13 and injuring 100.
Seven people were injured in the attack in Cambrils, 120km south of Barcelona, including one police officer. The attackers had also tried to drive a vehicle into pedestrians when they were fired on by police.
Catalonia police said they believed the two attacks, as well as an explosion on Wednesday night in Alcanar, 200km south of Barcelona in which one person died and a house collapsed, were all connected.
In another incident police shot dead a man after he tried to evade a checkpoint while leaving Barcelona hours after the first attack.
The Islamic State terrorist group said via its affiliated Amaq news agency that its “soldiers” were responsible for the attack on Las Ramblas, a popular tourist spot.
Catalan police chief Josep Luis Trapero said two men had been arrested in connection with the Barcelona attack, a Moroccan and a Spaniard from the North African Spanish enclave of Melilla.
The attack on Las Ramblas was “obviously a terrorist attack with the intent to kill as many people as possible”, Trapero said.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who cut short his holiday to travel to Barcelona, announced three days of official mourning.
“We are not only united in mourning. We are above all united in the resolute will to defeat those who want to take away our values and our way of life.”– DPA