A driver deliberately rammed a van into a crowd on Barcelona’s most popular street on August 17, 2017 killing at least 13 people before fleeing to a nearby bar, police said.
Officers in Spain’s second-largest city said the ramming on Las Ramblas was a “terrorist attack”. The driver of a van that mowed into a packed street in Barcelona is still on the run, Spanish police said. / AFP PHOTO / Josep LAGO
Police authorities from Spain’s Catalonia region said it has arrested a man in the Barcelona van attack and is “treating him as a terrorist”, denying earlier reports that the police has a suspect cornered in a local bar.
This came about as the Islamist State’s Amaq news agency claimed the attack that killed at least 13 people.
Spain’s royal palace has condemned the deadly van attack in Barcelona, calling the perpetrators “assassins, simply criminals who will not terrorize us.” The Royal Palace also posted on Twitter saying, ”All of Spain is Barcelona. Las Ramblas will once again be for all.”
At least 13 people were killed and 50 injured after a speeding van was driven onto a sidewalk and down a pedestrian zone in Barcelona’s historic Las Ramblas district, a street of stalls and shops that cuts through the center of Barcelona, is one of the city’s top tourist destinations.
Catalonia’s President condemns attack, says 2 people had been arrested
Catalonia’s president, Carles Puigdemont, condemned the attack in Barcelona that killed a total of 13 people and was claimed by Islamic State.
When Puigdemont spoke, 12 were confirmed dead but the number was increased to 13 later in the evening.
He said two people had been arrested. It was still not clear how many attackers had been involved.
Witnesses said the white van zigzagged at high speed down Las Ramblas, a busy avenue thronged with tourists, knocking down pedestrians and leaving bodies strewn across the ground.
Islamic State’s Amaq news agency said: “The perpetrators of the Barcelona attack are soldiers of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting coalition states” – a reference to a U.S.-led coalition against the Sunni militant group.
The claim could not immediately be verified.
American Keith Fleming says, ”It’s a kind of a tense situation…women and children just running and they looked terrified”. Fleming who is now a resident of Barcelona says, “Police arrived and pushed everyone a full block down the street. Officers are still there with guns drawn with riot police stationed at the end of the block”.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tweeted that “the terrorists will never destroy a united people who love liberty over barbarism. All of Spain is with the victims and families.”
The region’s interior minister is calling on residents to remain indoors and avoid unnecessary travel while the investigation continues. All public festivities scheduled in Barcelona are temporarily canceled, according to a government official.
Heads of states such as Britain’s prime minister Theresa May, European Commission President Jean-claude Juncker, French President Emmanuel Macron, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi, and US President Donald Trump are some of those who offered their support to the Spanish nation and expressed condemnation to the Barcelona terrorist attack.
(Reports from Associated Press, Reuters)