Terror plot

Unable to carry out the planned bombings, the gang is thought to have gone to Plan B.

After the van was driven into pedestrians in the Ramblas, an Audi A3 ploughed into a crowd in the early hours of Friday in the resort of Cambrils.

Seven people were injured in this second attack, one of whom later died.

The occupants of the car had been wearing fake suicide vests and had knives and an axe. Four of the five were shot dead by police at the scene.

Acetone peroxide – also called TATP and nicknamed Mother of Satan because of the high number of accidental explosions it causes – was found in the wreckage of the house that was used as the bomb factory.

TATP was used in the 7/7 bombings in London as well as the attacks in Paris in November 2015.

Shoe bomber Richard Reid tried but failed to detonate a TATP bomb on a flight from Paris to Miami in 2001.

It emerged yesterday that police believe a preacher was blown up during the botched attempt to carry out the van bombings.

Police were examining DNA to see if the body of imam Abdelbaki Es Satty is in the debris of the house that was blown to bits in Alcanar on Wednesday, local reports said.

The 40-year-old’s home in Ripoll – where six of the terror plotters lived – was raided by armed officers in the early hours yesterday.

Officers spent three hours inside his flat, 65 miles from the scene of the atrocity in the Ramblas.

Es Satty was subletting a room in the flat to another man, who told police

He said police went to the mosque and officials gave all the information they had about Es Satty to officers.

More than 20 butane gas canisters were also found in the debris of the bomb factory. It was originally reported