Barcelona defiant
Spanish king and leading politicians join crowds to pay their respects to 14 dead and 100 injured
‘Yesterday all we could hear at this spot was the screaming and panic. Hours later the streets are packed with people showing they won’t let terror win’
SPAIN stood defiant yesterday in the face of two terrorist attacks that killed 14 and injured more than 100 people, with citizens crying out “I am not afraid” at vigils held in Barcelona and across the country.
The blood of the victims was still visible on the streets as people quietly made their way to the busy tourist route to pay their respects at the start of three days of official mourning.
It was less than 24 hours after a terrorist drove a van down Las Ramblas in the heart of the Catalan capital, killing 13. Later, in the nearby tourist city of Cambrils, five terrorists were shot dead during a separate attack, which killed one woman.
Huge crowds and King Felipe VI, Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, and Carles Puigdemont, the president of the Spanish region of Catalonia, gathered for a minute’s silence at noon at the city’s Plaça de Catalunya. The square rests at the top of Las Ramblas, which leads to Barcelona’s waterfront.
Once the minute’s silence was over, there were spontaneous chants of “I am not afraid” in Spanish and Catalan and applause.
The call was quickly taken up at similar vigils in Madrid and across Spain. Others shared the hashtag #Notincpor online in solidarity. Thousands flooded down Las Ramblas chanting and clapping, at one point singing John Lennon’s Imagine. Angel Toscano, a 44-year-old souvenir stall worker whose kiosk was damaged as people were mown down in front of it, said that he was determined that they would open as usual to “show evil people they will not defeat us”.
He was one of a handful of stall holders on the pedestrianised strip who had returned to business as usual.
Mr Puigdemont, who has called for Catalan independence, said: “This spontaneous demonstration, this shout of ‘we are not afraid’ has reconquered our public space which was only a short while ago battered by these assassins.” Mr Rajoy, often at loggerheads with Mr Puigdemont, said: “What makes us most effective is that we are all united.”
Two huge “altars” to the victims sprang up on the promenade, one at the monument at the top of the Ramblas and the other at the Font de Canaletes, which is where Barcelona football fans traditionally go to celebrate their victories.
Within hours the single candle at the spot where the van’s rampage came to an end had transformed into numerous memorials brimming with flowers, Teddy bears and messages of love and solidarity. Ken Morris, 61, and his 51-year-old wife Karen, an art teacher, narrowly escaped with their lives yesterday but felt compelled to return to the scene to lay flowers.
Mr Morris, a retired chef from Liverpool, said: “Yesterday all we could hear at this spot was the screaming and panic and the horrible cracking sounds as the van snaked through the crowds mowing people down and smashing souvenir kiosks.
“Yet hours later the streets are just as packed with people showing they won’t let terror win – it’s amazing.”