Barcelona's popular tourist avenue of Las Ramblas has been rocked by a suspected terrorist attack.
This is what we know.
- A van mounted the street and drove into pedestrians
- At least 16 people have been killed but authorities expect that number to rise
- One Australian woman is among the 100 people injured, she is in a serious but stable condition
- Of the people injured, 15 people are in a serious condition
- Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack
- The driver of the van has not been arrested but authorities do have two men connected to the attack in custody.
What happened?
Las Ramblas is a walkway — a pedestrian area — that stretches for 1.2 kilometres with vehicle lanes on either side.
A witness said the van jumped onto the centralised pedestrian area at a high speed and swerved from side to side.
It was Thursday afternoon in Spain and reports said the area was crowded and "everybody was having a lovely afternoon".
Australian Julia Monaco was there:
"Everyone was incredibly calm. It was a split second and everything changed,"
"Suddenly, everybody in that square was just running ... they had seen or heard, had terrified them truly, and they just started running."
Who did it target?
ABC journalist Eric Campbell said the fatalities were expected to almost be all foreign tourists.
"This is the height of the tourist season here. There is not a single time of the year when you will find more people walking down Las Ramblas then you would have seen today."
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop spoke about the Australians affected.
Two young Australian men also advised the Federal Government they were directly affected by the attack.
They returned to their hotel and will seek medical treatment in the morning.
Who is responsible?
Two men are in custody over the attack, but neither of them are the driver.
The driver of the van left the vehicle on foot and did not appear to be armed, Catalan police said.
They said one of the two men arrested was Moroccan and the other was from the Spanish enclave of Melilla in North Africa.
They were arrested in two different towns in the region of Catalonia, Ripoll and Alcanar.
The Islamic State group said the attack was done by its "soldiers" via its Amaq propaganda arm.
An alleged getaway van was found in a neighbouring small town.
Catalan authorities have linked that vehicle to the attack.
