Terror cell had bigger attack planned

More deadly assault was abandoned when protagonists accidentally blew up the house where explosives were kept

Terrorists behind attacks in Catalonia which killed 14 people were planning an even larger bombing campaign, police have said.

Spanish officers said the plan was only abandoned when the house being used to stockpile explosives was accidentally blown up.

A woman hurt in yesterday’s attack in the coastal town of Cambrils died, which brought the death toll to 14.

Terrorists behind attacks in Catalonia which killed 14 people were planning an even larger bombing campaign, it has emerged.

Spanish police yesterday revealed the plan was only abandoned when the terrorists accidentally blew up the house where they were storing explosives.

Officers also said that one of the five terrorists killed during the terror attack in Cambrils in the early hours of yesterday may have been the driver of the van which left 13 people dead in Barcelona on Thursday.

Four of the dead men have been identified. They were aged 21, 27, 28 and 34. Three were Moroccan and one was Spanish, and police said none of them were previously known to the security services for terror-related reasons.

But Catalan regional police official Josep Lluis Trapero told reporters the fifth man had not yet been identified.

A woman injured in yesterday’s attack in the Catalan coastal town later died, bringing the total to 14 dead, plus 130 injured.

Prime Minister Theresa May said a child with dual British nationality was believed to be among those unaccounted for.

Mr Trapero said an explosion at a house in the town of Alcanar on Wednesday had meant the attacks were more “rudimentary” than planned.

“We are working on the hypothesis that these attacks were being prepared for a while around this private home in Alcanar,” he said.

“We think they were preparing at least one or more attack in Barcelona. The explosion in Alcanar at least avoided some of the material they were counting on to carry out even bigger attacks. Because of that the attack in Barcelona and the one in Cambrils were carried out in a bit more rudimentary way than the one they had initially planned.”

The grandfather of Julian Alessandro Cadman made a plea for information about the boy, who became separated from his mother during the attack in Barcelona.

Tony Cadman, whose Facebook profile says he lives in Sydney and is from Gillingham, Dorset, posted a photograph of Julian, writing: “My grandson, Julian Alessandro Cadmanismissing.pleaselike and share.”

Speaking later from Chequers, Mrs May said: “The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Spain in confronting and dealing with the evil of terrorism, and I have offered any assistance we can provide.

“Sadly I must tell you that we do believe that a number of British nationals were caught up in the attack and we are urgently looking into reports of a child believed missing, who is a British dual national.”

The attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, some 70 miles south west from the city on the Mediterranean coast, took place around eight hours apart on Thursday afternoon and in the early hours of yesterday.

In a chilling echo of the London Bridge attack in June, Catalonia president Carles Puigdemont said the five terrorists in the Cambrils car were wearing fake suicide belts when they were stopped.

Police revealed that an axe and knives were also found in the vehicle, with one of the latter used to wound one person in the face before the terrorists were gunned down.

Barcelona, a hugely popular tourist destination, came to a halt at noon yesterday as a minute’s silence was observed in the Placa Catalunya, close to the scene of the attack.

Led by King Felipe and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the silence was followed by applause for the victims.

Three days of mourning have been declared by the government of Catalonia.

Hundreds of people have marched through the heart of Barcelona in a defiant show of solidarity against Thursday’s devastating attacks.

Lawyer and University of Glasgow rector Aamer Anwar said that businesses on the busy pedestrianised street began reopening early yesterday, despite a heightened security presence.

He said: “Life seems to be going back very quickly to normality. Shop owners are opening up, stalls are back out on the street, but I’m conscious that there are two types of people here.

“There are those that saw what happened, there were those who were right in the heart of it, like myself, and then there were others who were tourists who had no clue. I was conscious of that yesterday when I was in Las Ramblas, when there were people like myself who were in shock, people upset, people crying, but then there was people who had no idea what had gone on. So there was mixed emotions.”

“We are working on the hypothesis that these attacks were being prepared for a while around this private home in Alcanar”

JOSEP LLUIS TRAPERO