A van mowed through crowds of tourists on Barcelona’s (Spain) most famous avenue on Thursday, killing about a dozen people in a ‘terror attack’. A Catalan government official said the death toll could rise above the 13 so far confirmed.
Around 4.50 pm (1450 GMT), a vehicle slammed into a crowd of pedestrians on the famous Las Ramblas boulevard. The promenade in the heart of the city centre is one of Barcelona’s busiest streets, normally thronged with tourists and street performers until well into the night.
Witnesses described scenes of chaos and panic, with bodies strewn along the boulevard as others fled for their lives. Tom Gueller, who lives on a road next to Las Ramblas said he saw the van speeding along the boulevard.
“It wasn’t slowing down at all. It was just going straight through the middle of the crowds in the middle of the Ramblas,” he told BBC radio, referring to the pedestrianised area.
While six civilians and one police officer were hurt when a car drove into people in the Spanish seaside resort of Cambrils early Friday, the regional government said, just hours after a similar deadly attack in nearby Barcelona.
Spanish police said they had shot dead “four suspected terrorists” and left another injured early on Friday in Cambrils. Police said that they are investigating whether the Cambrils suspects were wearing explosive vests. Its officers planned to carry out several controlled explosions.
In another incident, an explosion killed one person in a house in Catalonia. Police sources said that the residents were preparing explosives using gas cyclinders.
