NATIONS UNITED IN GRIEF AS THE NAMES OF VICTIMS IN SPAIN ATTACK EMERGE
A seven-year-old is missing, while two women in their seventies were among those killed as van ploughed across Barcelona’s Las Ramblas
It’s a picture that would make any parent proud. Dressed in his smart green nursery school uniform, Julian Alessandro Cadman’s brown eyes peek out from beneath a mop of dark hair as he looks into the camera lens for his school photo.
This picture has now been shared across the world as the search continues to find Julian, 7. He has been missing since a van ploughed into tourists walking along Barcelona’s most famous street, Las Ramblas.
At least 13 were killed and scores injured when the attackers struck the Barcelona hotspot on Thursday in the worst terrorist attack on Spain for a decade.
In the early hours of the following morning, another vehicle attack took place in the coastal town of Cambrils, killing a woman. In total, 130 people were injured.
Julian, who holds British and Australian citizenship, was walking with his mother, Jom, on Las Ramblas at the time of the attack. They became separated and although the family reported that his mother was found in a serious but stable condition at a hospital, no one has seen or heard from Julian.
The UK’s foreign office has sent extra staff to Barcelona and is offering help to the Spanish authorities to find the boy. Julian’s father, Andrew Cadman from Sydney, said they had spoken only hours before the attack. He is flying to Spain to search for his son.
Victims of the attacks are from 34 countries, the Catalan regional government said. At least 26 French nationals were hurt, 11 of them seriously.
Australian citizens are unaccounted for and people from Germany, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Greece and Hong Kong are also among the injured.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, described the attacks as “cowardly acts of terrorism” and sent his “sincere condolences to Spain’s people and leadership”. He also wished the injured a fast recovery.
The first victim to be identified was an Italian father of two, Bruno Gulotta. Gulotta, 35, was holding his five-yearold son’s hand when the van struck. The boy, Alexander, was dragged to safety by his mother, Martina. His sister, Aria, who is 7 months old, was strapped to her mother’s chest.
Gulotta’s friends reflected that Aria will grow up without knowing her father.
“We put ourselves in the shoes of little Alexander, who is preparing to start elementary school in the knowledge that his life and family will no longer be the same,” Roberto Buonanno said.
“And then we think of little Aria, who will not remember the horrible scene but will never know her dad.”
Gulotta was one of two Italians killed, Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni confirmed.
The second, Luca Rosso, 25, was on holiday with his girlfriend, who was taken to hospital after the attack. A university-educated man, Rosso lived in northern Italy in Treviso and volunteered for the Green Cross charity.
His sister sent out a plea looking for help to find her brother an hour before he was identified as one of the fatalities.
A 60-year-old man from Granada was the first Spanish victim to be identified. Francisco Lopez Rodriguez was killed, as was his wife’s niece and a three-year-old child related to the family. His wife is seriously injured.
Rodriguez’s niece tried to use social media to find her uncle but after frantic messages, she tweeted that he had been killed.
The three-year-old is thought to be the youngest victim. A six-year-old girl has been hospitalised with a cerebral haemorrhage.
Described as “compassionate, generous [and] adventurous”, news that a Canadian grandfather had died broke when his daughter, a Vancouver police officer, released a statement. In it, she thanked bystanders and emergency workers who cared for her mother and tried to save her father’s life, as well as those who had offered their sympathy and support. Ian Moore Wilson was on holiday with his wife of 53 years, Valerie.
An American from Walnut Creek, California, is also among the dead. Jared Tucker, a 42-year-old construction worker, was celebrating his first wedding anniversary with his wife, Heidi Nunes. Moments before the attack, in which they became separated, the couple had been enjoying drinks on the street.
“Next thing I know there’s screaming, yelling,” Ms Nunes said. “I got pushed inside the souvenir kiosk and stayed there hiding while everybody kept running by, screaming.”
A photograph which appears to show a severely injured Tucker being helped by someone in a black T-shirt is circulating online. On Friday night, Ms Nunes identified the body of her husband.
A 44-year-old football fan called Elke Vanbockrijck, who friends described as a “super woman” and “honey of a mom”, was killed. She was on holiday with her husband and two sons, aged 11 and 14. The Belgium national’s wedding had been presided over by Patrick Dewael, the mayor of her town, Tongeren, who sent his condolences.
Pepita Codina, 75, a hairdresser from the Spanish town of Hipolit de Voltrega, died in the attack. Another woman in her seventies, from Portugal, was killed, according to the country’s news agency.
Anna Maria Suarez, 61, from Zaragoza, in northern Spain, was the only victim to die in the attack in Cambrils. She was with her husband and sister, who were both injured.
King Felipe VI and Queen Leitzia, who have been leading the country in mourning, visited victims of the Barcelona attack in hospital yesterday.
The king led the country in a minute of silence on Friday to remember the victims.
The dead and injured in Thursday’s terrorist attack came from 34 countries and were not spared for their age or gender