TV3 says it now has “official” confirmation that 13 people are dead. It also says there are dozens of injured.
Eyewitness Lourdes Porcar told TV3 television station that she saw the van running people over. “It was going very fast, without caring about who was in its way,” she said.
Police have set up roadblocks around the city amid reports that a second van was involved in the attack and fled the scene.
There are also reports that at least one attacker is holed up in a Turkish restaurant on Carrer Hospital, which leads off from the spot in which the van appears to have come to a halt.
Television pictures show that a van came to a halt on top of a Joan Miro mosaic, half-way down Las Ramblas - meaning it would have covered more than 500 metres.
Death toll at 13 - unconfirmed Spanish media reports
Spanish radio station Cadena Ser radio is reporting that at least 13 people have died in the Barcelona incident, citing police sources. Spanish police have not given an official toll.
Aamer Anwar, civil rights lawyer and rector of Glasgow University, was on the Ramblas when the attack happened and ran for his life.
He saw scenes of terror after the attack:
It was jam packed with tourists, it was a beautiful sunny day. I heard a noise, a crashing noise. At the same time there were screams and people started to run. It was like an avalanche of people running, in front and behind me. People were jumping into shops, pulling their children out of prams. There was no room [on the Ramblas], it was swamped with families, children, and tourists. I saw a woman running, when we stopped she was screaming, because she could not see her children. Within 30 seconds I could see police officers with guns. One man told me there were five or six people seriously injured.
Anwar said 80 minutes after the incident, ambulances were still arriving at the scene. He was in Barcelona to speak at a conference on Catalan independence, being held this weekend.
TV3 is reporting that “up to” six people are dead, but does not name its sources. The spokeswoman for a chain of 10 restaurants in the area said that some 600 people were stuck inside their restaurants, waiting for permission from the police to leave.
Those people may be having trouble communicating with friends because mobile phone coverage in the area is saturated.
Local police say they still do not know the motivation for the attack, but are treating it as terrorism. The Cadena Ser radio station reports that a Spanish identity card with an Arabic name has been found inside the van.
There are reports of police ushering people away from a Turkish restaurant by the Ramblas. There are also reports that at least one gunman is holed up in a Turkish restaurant.
The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for UK citizens in Barcelona, telling them to avoid Las Ramblas.
“We are in contact with the Spanish authorities and seeking more information following an incident in Barcelona. Anyone in the area should follow the advice of the emergency services,” an FCO spokesperson said.
On the travel advice page for Spain on the FCO website, the updated advice says:
The British embassy in Madrid and consulate general in Barcelona are in contact with local authorities and urgently seeking further information following reports of an incident in central Barcelona.
Local authorities have advised people to stay inside and stay away from the Las Ramblas area of the city. If you’re in the immediate area you should take care and follow the advice of the local security authorities; press reports suggest that some public transport, particularly the metro, has been affected.
The police have tweeted that there has been no exchange of gunfire in the department store El Corte Inglés and called on people to follow official sources for information.
Injured people are treated in Barcelona. Photograph: Oriol Duran/AP
The Spanish emergency services have told people in the area of Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona to stay where they are until told by police that they can leave.
Si os encontráis Si os encontráis en la zona de Plaza Cataluña en Barcelona quedaos donde estéis hasta que la policía diga que podéis salir
A producer at Sky News is at the scene on Las Ramblas and sent this dispatch:
Sky producer Mike Mawhinney said:
All around Las Ramblas, about three blocks off it, the streets are being completely locked off, people pushed back.
They’re searching the area for anything else, so obviously there’s the story you just mentioned about the restaurant, obviously a possible development.
When I arrived on the scene I saw two wounded people lying on the pavement, one was getting picked up and put on to a stretcher and lowered on to the ambulance and stretchered out, that looked quite serious.
The other seemed to be OK and was moving and later was being loaded up on to an ambulance and taken out.
Everybody’s been thrown into buildings, locked in, everyone’s told to get off the street. They pushed everybody back at least three blocks off the Las Ramblas as they were searching the area.
There were armed teams, undercover police and the flying squad guys clearing the streets and trying to take control of the situation.
Obviously everybody’s a little bit jittery due to the circumstances and thinking about secondary devices or whatever else may happen after the main event.
From what I understand from one eyewitness, the vehicle entered Las Ramblas on the road side and then went on to the pedestrian side and went down the middle.
The president of the government of Catalonia has called for “maximum caution” in the wake of the attack. He added that “all the attention” should be on the victims of the attack.
