BARCELONA
(Reuters) - Spain mounted a sweeping anti-terror operation on Friday after a
suspected Islamist militant drove a van into crowds in Barcelona, killing 13
people before fleeing, in what police suspect was one of multiple planned
attacks.
Islamic
State claimed responsibility for the deadly rampage along the city's most
famous avenue on Thursday, which was packed with tourists taking an afternoon
stroll. The death toll could rise, with more than 100 injured, authorities
said.
As security
forces hunted for the van's driver, who was seen escaping on foot, police said
they had killed five attackers on Thursday night in Cambrils, a town south of
Barcelona, to thwart a separate attack using explosive belts.
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. Police said the Cambrils incident was linked to the van attack in
Barcelona.
Before the
van ploughed into the tree-lined walkway of Las Ramblas, one person was killed
in an explosion in a house in a separate town southwest of Barcelona, police
said. Residents there were preparing explosives, a police source added.
Police said
they had arrested two men, a Moroccan and a man from Spain's north African
enclave of Melilla, though neither was the van driver. They added that the
situation in Cambrils was under control.
It was still
not clear how many people had been involved in the van attack and other
incidents on Thursday.
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.
The injured
and dead came from 24 different countries, the Catalan government said on
Friday in a statement, ranging from France and Germany to Pakistan and the
Philippines.
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.
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.
The Islamic
State claim could not immediately be verified.
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.
That modus
operandi - crude, deadly and very hard to prevent - has killed well over 100
people in Nice, Berlin, London and Stockholm.
British
tourist Keith Welling, who arrived in Barcelona on Wednesday with his wife and
9-year-old daughter, said they saw the van drive past them down the avenue and
took refuge in a restaurant when panic broke out and the crowd started running.
"People
were shouting and we heard a bang and someone cried that it was a gunshot ...
Me and my family ran into the restaurant along with around 40 other people.
"At
first people were going crazy in there, lots of people crying, including a
little girl around three years old."
It was the
deadliest attack in Spain since March 2004, when Islamist militants placed
bombs on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and wounding more than
1,800.
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.”
U.S.
President Donald Trump said: "The United States condemns the terror attack
in Barcelona, Spain, and will do whatever is necessary to help."
He added:
"Be tough & strong, we love you!"
BODIES ON
THE GROUND
Police said
the two men detained on Thursday had been arrested in two towns, Ripoll and
Alcanar, both in the region of Catalonia, of which Barcelona is the capital.
The
explosion was also in the town of Alcanar, in the early hours of Thursday. One
person died and another was injured in that incident, police said.
Police said
they also shot dead on Thursday a man who had driven a car into a police
checkpoint in Barcelona, though they had no evidence he was connected with the
van attack.
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.
Around them,
the boulevard was deserted, covered in rubbish and abandoned objects including
hats, flip-flops and a pram.
Belgium's
foreign minister said a Belgian was among the dead.
Regional
head Carles Puigdemont said people had been flocking to hospitals in Barcelona
to give blood.
Susana
Elvira Carolina, 33, who works at a shop on Las Ramblas, had just entered her
building when the van struck.
"We had
a window and you could see the bodies lying from there, you could see how
people were run over ... We were shutting down the blinds but people kept
coming in and we had to keep it open so they could enter the shop."
TOURIST DRAW
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.
Barcelona is
the capital of the wealthy northeastern region of Catalonia, which plans to
hold a popular vote on Oct. 1 on whether it should secede from Spain. The
central government says the vote cannot go ahead because it is
unconstitutional.
Before
Thursday's 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.
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