Spain terror attacks: 13 killed and 100 injured – as it happened

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18 Aug 201700.34 EDT

What we know so far

Claire Phipps

• A second terror attack has taken place in Cambrils, a coastal town around 120km from Barcelona. Six bystanders and one police officer were injured – two seriously – when they were reportedly deliberately hit by a car.
• Police officers then shot dead five suspects, some of whom were wearing what appeared to be explosive belts.
• Authorities say the attack is linked to the terrorist assault on Barcelona earlier on Thursday, when a man drove a van into pedestrians in Las Ramblas, killing 13 people and injuring 100 more.
• The driver escaped the scene and a police manhunt for him continues.
• Two suspects whom police believe to be linked to the Barcelona attack are in custody, although neither is the driver. One is Driss Oukabir, originally named as the suspect, although he is reported to have told police that his identity documents were stolen before they were used to rent the van.
• Officials are also linking the two attacks to an earlier explosion that destroyed a house in Alcanar, killing one person and wounding at least one more. Police now say they believe explosives were being prepared at the property.
• Alcanar is around 200km (124 miles) from Barcelona and 90km (56 miles) from Cambrils.
• A second van that was believed to have been used as a getaway vehicle for the Barcelona attacker was found abandoned in Vic, 80km away.
• Isis has claimed responsibility for the attack in Las Ramblas, but this could not be verified.

The Catalan regional government has now said that citizens from 24 countries were among the people killed and injured during the Barcelona van attack.

Although police have said they believe the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils to be linked, it is not clear if the man who drove the van that killed 13 people in Las Ramblas was among the suspects shot by police in the coastal town some hours later.

It is understood that for now the manhunt continues.

Neither of the two men detained by police were the driver, authorities have said.

Eyewitness accounts from Cambrils report “many gunshots” as police killed five people who had used a car to mow down pedestrians.

Markel Artabe, a 20-year-old restaurant worker, said he was on the promenade and saw someone lying on the ground “with a gunshot in the head”.

Joan Marc Serra Salinas, a 21-year-old waiter, said he heard gunshots “and shouting. And more shouting. I jumped on to the beach and didn’t move.”

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There was another terrorist attack in Cambrils before five suspects were shot dead, authorities have confirmed.

A spokesman for the regional government of Catalonia said:

The alleged terrorists were in an Audi A3 and apparently knocked down several people before coming across a police patrol and a shoot-out ensued.

Seven people, including one police officer, were injured. The officer’s injuries are not life-threatening but one other person is critically injured and another seriously.

The five suspects were in an Audi A3 car, which was driven deliberately into pedestrians on the seafront in Cambrils on Thursday evening.

Police said some of the attackers were wearing what looked like explosive belts, adding that they were “working on the hypothesis that the terrorists shot dead in Cambrils could be linked to what happened in Barcelona”.

Police have said the five suspects killed in Cambrils were carrying explosive belts and had run over civilians with a car, Associated Press is now reporting.

Two arrests were made on Thursday in connection with the attack in Barcelona and the house explosion in Alcanar. One was arrested in Alcanar and the other, named as Driss Oukabir, in the northern Catalan town of Ripoll.

Police commissioner Josep Lluis Trapero said neither of the two men are suspected of driving the van in Las Ramblas, and officers were earlier searching for the suspect.

It is not clear if that search is ongoing following the deaths of five suspects in Cambrils.

What happened in Cambrils before police shot and killed five terror suspects is still unclear.

Officials have given little information beyond the fact that the five alleged perpetrators were killed; and that six bystanders were injured along with one police officer. The officer is lightly hurt, but one of the six is critically ill and another seriously wounded.

Other reports from the scene – as yet not confirmed – suggest some of the suspects drove a car, possibly an Audi, at pedestrians, causing the injuries.

The location of bodies pictured at the scene suggest the suspects were not in the car when they were shot by police.

There are also unverified reports that the suspects were wearing explosive belts. Police said a specialist bomb disposal team was investigating this.

Some images from Cambrils show police officers inspecting a car in the town, after five suspects were shot.

Spanish media reports have said a vehicle might have been used to run down bystanders in the town. Police have said six people were injured but have given no further details.

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A British man, Fitzroy Davis, witnessed the shooting of one of the suspects as he celebrated a night out with friends in Cambrils. One of his friends was injured by shrapnel during the incident.

He told the BBC:

We were sitting at the bar and these girls ran in and some people started running past us. One of our friends looked down the street and he says: ‘Run.’

The next thing is we see this guy coming running at us and someone shouted: ‘Call the police, call the police.’

He was running away at first then he turned round and he came running back up the street and he stopped and that is when the police car came and then they were shouting at him.

And then he was walking around in a circle and then they shot him.

He fell to the ground and he came back up and he stepped over the fence and he was smiling at them. And he came walking to the police and he was taunting them sort of thing, and they shot him again.

And that was it and then he went down.

Barcelona

• 13 people are confirmed to have died after a van was driven into pedestrians in Las Ramblas.
• Around 100 people were injured, at least 15 of them seriously.
• Two men have been arrested – including Driss Oukabir, who was initially suspected of being the driver – but police have now said neither man was behind the wheel. They remain in custody.

Cambrils

• Police shot dead four suspects in the coastal town, around 120kms from Barcelona. A fifth, who was injured and arrested, has since died.
• Six bystanders were wounded, one critically and another seriously, in what authorities said was a possible terror attack. Reports suggested a vehicle was driven at pedestrians in an echo of the Barcelona attack, but this has not been confirmed.
• A police officer was also lightly injured in the counter-terror operation.

Alcanar

• One person was killed and at least one other wounded in an explosion that destroyed a house in Alcanar, around 200km from Barcelona and 90km from Cambrils,
• The cause was initially thought to be a gas leak but police now say they are linking it to the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils.

Catalan police say the suspect who was injured and arrested in Cambrils has now died.

In New York, the spire of One World Trade Center has been lit red and yellow tonight in solidarity with the people of Barcelona:

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The Eiffel Tower earlier went dark in tribute to the victims:

The health department has said that one of the six bystanders injured in Cambrils is in a critical condition.

Spanish media including El País are reporting that a group of assailants in the town ran over several people in an echo of the day’s earlier attack in Barcelona. This has not been confirmed by authorities. However, police have said that six civilians and one police officer were injured.

That’s in addition to the four suspects shot dead and one arrested.

Police also say they are about to conduct “several controlled explosions” in Cambrils and ask people in the town not to be alarmed.

Catalan police have just confirmed that – as well as the four suspects shot dead, and a fifth who was wounded and arrested – six bystanders and one police officer were injured during the operation in Cambrils.

Two are seriously injured. The officer was slightly hurt.

It’s not clear how they were injured.