4 in court over deadly Barcelona attack

Four men accused of being members of an extremist cell behind a van attack that killed 13 people in Barcelona last week appeared in court yesterday, a day after the alleged driver was shot dead by police.

The four, the only ones still alive among the 12 men thought to constitute the group, were brought from Barcelona to Madrid and arrived at the High Court, which deals with terrorism cases, in a convoy of police vehicles with sirens wailing.

Police on Monday shot dead 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub, who they had identified as the driver of the van that careered along the packed Las Ramblas boulevard in Barcelona on Thursday, leaving a trail of 13 dead and 120 injured from 34 countries.

After the attack, Abouyaaqoub escaped on foot, stabbing to death a man who was parking his car and fleeing in the vehicle.

Walked 40km

Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia said yesterday he walked some 40km from Sant Just Desvern, a town on the outskirts of Barcelona where he ditched the hijacked car, to Subirats, where he was shot dead.

Abouyaaqoub, who had changed clothes, walked by night and hid during the day, the paper said citing sources involved in the investigation.

Carlos Mundo, the top justice official in the Catalan government, said police were investigating whether Abouyaaqoub had any support while on the run.

“It is clear that he must have had some form of logistics,” he told Catalonia Radio.