Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
ABC News
ABC News
World

Police make fourth arrest over Spain terror attacks

A fourth person has been arrested over a series of suspected terror attacks that killed 14 people and injured 130 in Spain, authorities say.

Police shot dead five would-be attackers after confronting them in Cambrils, a town south of Barcelona where hours earlier a suspected attacker drove a van into crowds.

Authorities were continuing an urgent manhunt for the driver of the van that ploughed into crowds on the popular Las Ramblas tourist strip.

Of the four people already arrested, three were from Morocco and one was from Spain, police said.

They were aged between 21 and 34, and none had a history of terrorism-related activities.

Authorities have issued arrest warrants for four further suspects in connection with the two attacks, a judicial source said, declining to give their names.

At a press conference on Friday (local time) police said they still did not know the identity of the driver, despite Spanish media identifying an 18-year-old man.

Two Spanish newspapers also reported that the driver was one of the five people shot dead by police.

Las Ramblas was reopened the morning after the attack, though a police presence and security tape was still visible in some places.

Thirteen people were killed in the attack at Las Ramblas, and a 14th died from injuries suffered from a related attack at Cambrils.

Four Australians are among the 130 people injured, and authorities have warned the death toll could rise.

A seven-year-old Australian boy was missing and his mother was in a serious condition in hospital.

As security forces hunted for the van's driver, Spanish police shot and killed five suspected terrorists in the Spanish resort town of Cambrils, south of Barcelona, where an earlier deadly attack took place.

Six civilians and a police officer were injured in Cambrils when the attackers ran them over in a car, before police shot them dead and carried out controlled explosions.

A woman injured in the attack, who was not named, later died.

The Cambrils incident was linked to the van attack in Barcelona, police said.

Police say both incidents are linked to an earlier explosion at a house in Alcanar, where it was a believed a homemade bomb was being prepared. One person died and another was injured in that incident, police said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on its Amaq website, and it was carried out "in response to calls for targeting coalition states" — a reference to a US-led coalition against the Sunni militant group.

Spain has several hundred soldiers in Iraq providing training to local forces in the fight against Islamic State, but they are not involved in ground operations.

If the involvement of Islamist militants is confirmed, it would be the latest in a string of attacks in the past 13 months in which they have used vehicles to bring carnage to the streets of European cities.

A minute's silence in Barcelona turned political, when some mourners raised Spanish and Catalan flags.

They were quickly rebuked them for trying to politicise the solemn event at Las Ramblas, with the crowd urging them to "get rid of the flags".

Polls show the region is split ahead of a planned referendum on whether Catalonia should become independent from Spain, which the country's central Government considers would be illegal to hold, in October.

"We're here for the victims and to protest what happened. This is not about anyone's politics," Anna Esquerdo, a lifelong Barcelona resident, said.

Everything changed in a 'split second'

Witnesses to the van attack said the white vehicle had zigzagged at high speed down Las Ramblas, ramming pedestrians and cyclists, sending some hurtling through the air and leaving bodies strewn in its wake.

Mobile phone footage showed several bodies strewn along the Ramblas, some motionless.

Paramedics and bystanders bent over them, treating them and trying to comfort those still conscious.

The injured and dead were of 34 nationalities, emergency services said.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said eight Australians were caught up in the attack: four were injured and treated in hospital, and one person was unaccounted for.

Sydney woman Lauren Grundeman, who was walking along Las Ramblas just before the attack, said there was a "great vibe" in the city before terror suddenly struck.

"So many people were out — lots of families, lots of little children — it was great, the weather was beautiful," she said.

"About five we decided to go back to the hotel and we went down a side street, then all of a sudden we heard lots of people screaming, crying and yelling, and I was like 'what's going on here?'"

Australian woman Julia Monaco said there was "mild confusion" initially before the horror of the attack was revealed.

"It was a split second and everything changed and suddenly, everybody in that square was just running," she told ABC News Breakfast.

"Whatever they had seen or heard, had terrified them truly, and they just started running."

Attack comes at height of Barcelona tourist season

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced three days of official mourning for what he called a "jihadist attack".

The Spanish royal household said on Twitter: "They are murderers, nothing more than criminals who are not going to terrorise us. All of Spain is Barcelona."

Regional head Carles Puigdemont said people had been flocking to hospitals in Barcelona to give blood.

The attack is the deadliest in Spain since March 2004, when Islamist militants placed bombs on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and wounding more than 1,800.

The incident took place at the height of the tourist season in Barcelona, which is one of Europe's top travel destinations with at least 11 million visitors a year.

French President Emmanuel Macron, whose nation has suffered some of Europe's deadliest militant attacks in recent years, tweeted: "All my thoughts and France's solidarity to the victims of the tragic attack in Barcelona."

Authorities in Vic, a small town outside Barcelona, said a van had been found there in connection with the attack. Spanish media had earlier reported that a second van had been hired as a getaway vehicle.

Before the Las Ramblas attack, Government data showed that police had arrested 11 suspected jihadists in the Barcelona area so far this year, more than anywhere else in Spain.

AP/Reuters/ABC

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.