MOTHER
Terror group planned to kill thousands with bombs Evil plot thwarted after explosive factory blows up
The evil group had identified a trio of key locations around the Spanish city to simultaneously detonate bombs in three vans.
They planned to use a highly unstable but lethal substance similar to the kind used in the Manchester Arena blast, the London 7/7 bombings and the 2015 Paris atrocities.
The gang’s intended targets included the world-famous Sagrada Familia church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most visited attractions in Europe.
Other objectives were in the harbour area of the city and in Las Ramblas, where a van drove into crowds and killed 13 last Thursday.
Police are working on the theory that the cell were forced to abort the plan when their bomb factory crammed with gas canisters exploded on Wednesday. And last night officers were investigating whether an Islamic preacher was killed in the blast in Alnacar, 120 miles south of Barcelona.
Cops are now also thought to be probing claims that the preacher may have radicalised the 12-strong gang.
Catalonia police spokesman Josep Lluis Trapero said: “The gang were preparing one or several attacks in Barcelona, and an explosion in Alcanar stopped this as they no longer had the material they needed to commit attacks of an even bigger scope.’
Unable to carry out their original bomb plan, the gang decided to use vehicles as weapons, First came the rampage with a rented van and later the same evening an