A van veered onto a promenade Thursday and barreled down the busy walkway in central Barcelona, swerving back and forth as it mowed pedestrians down and turned a picturesque tourist destination into a bloody killing zone. Thirteen people were killed and 100 were injured, 15 of them seriously, in what authorities called a terror attack.
The late afternoon attack in the city’s Las Ramblas district left victims sprawled in the historic street, spattered with blood or writhing in pain from broken limbs. Others were ushered inside shops by officers with their guns drawn or fled in panic, screaming and carrying young children in their arms.
“It was clearly a terror attack, intended to kill as many people as possible,” Josep Lluis Trapero, a senior police official for Spain’s Catalonia region told reporters late Thursday.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility, saying in a statement on its Aamaq news agency that the attack was carried out by “soldiers of the Islamic State” in response to the extremist group’s calls for followers to target countries participating in the coalition trying to drive it from Syria and Iraq.
Early Friday, Catalan police posted a tweet saying they shot and killed four suspects and wounded a fifth in a resort town south of Barcelona. They said officers “shot down the perpetrators” to “respond to a terrorist attack.” It wasn’t immediately clear from the tweet if the five shot were suspects in the Las Ramblas attack or were allegedly targeting another location.
Spain’s public broadcaster, RTVE, reported that police suspected them of planning to carry out an attack in Cambrils, a seaside town about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Barcelona.
The Catalan regional government said citizens from 24 countries were among the people killed and injured during the Barcelona van attack.
Authorities said the dead included a Belgian and a Greek woman was among the injured. Germany’s Foreign Ministry said it was checking reports that German citizens were among the victims.
Source: Associated Press
