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Las Ramblas attack: van hits crowd in tourist area of Barcelona Las Ramblas attack: van hits crowd in tourist area of Barcelona
(35 minutes later)
At least 13 people are dead and dozens injured after a van crashed into a crowd of people in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas area. Thirteen people are dead and at least 50 injured after a van rammed into a crowded street in the heart of Barcelona, in the latest attack where a vehicle was turned into a lethal weapon. Witnesses spoke of panic and seeing people covered in blood, as victims lay dying in Las Ramblas.
Two people have been arrested by Spanish police, who are treating the incident as a terror attack. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place on Thursday afternoon when a large white Fiat van veered off the road at the top of La Rambla into a crowd of unsuspecting people. Within an hour, Spanish police confirmed they were treating it as a terrorist attack.
It was not immediately clear how many people were involved in the attack, which was claimed by Islamic State on its propaganda news channel. Later on Thursday evening, police said two suspected attackers had been arrested. The van driver was captured after he ran into two policeman at a checkpoint.
It was the latest attack in Europe to use a vehicle, following similar atrocities in Nice, Berlin and London that have claimed more than 100 lives in total. One of the suspects has been named as Driss Oukabir, an individual believed to be from north Africa, who is alleged to have rented the van used in the attack.
Television pictures showed people lying on the ground and a crashed van that had stopped on top of a Joan Míro mosaic halfway down Las Ramblas, an area popular with tourists. The use of weapons as a vehicle is now a well-established tactic and has been used in attacks in France, Germany, Sweden and the UK in the past 13 months.
It reportedly entered the wide boulevard where it meets the Plaça de Catalunya, then drove towards the port area, meaning it would have covered more than 500 metres. The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, cancelled his holiday in Galicia, north-west Spain, to return to Madrid. The Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, and the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, also cut short their holidays to return to the city, as the regional government announced an emergency meeting.
Spanish police have identified one of the suspects as Driss Oukabir, who is alleged to have rented the white Fiat van used in the attack. It is not clear if he is one of those who have been arrested. La Rambla is the boulevard known to all visitors to Barcelona. Leading down from the large, open Plaza de Catalunya, the tree-lined boulevard is a shady release from the beating heat of the square.
Oukabir is understood to be from North Africa but to possess a NIE, the identity document issued to foreigners who are resident in Spain. At almost any time of the day, the area is full of people buying newspapers, postcards and souvenirs in the kiosks or looking at the flower stalls. Early on Thursday afternoon, with locals mostly away on holiday, a large number of those people were tourists.
The van was hired in the municipality of Santa Perpetua de la Mogada, about 25km from the centre of Barcelona. At around 5pm, a large white Fiat van veered off the road at the top of the street and drove straight into the crowd milling around near the entrance to the Plaça de Catalunya metro station.
A second van linked to the attack – assumed to have been used as getaway car – has been found in the small town of Vic in Catalonia. It sped down the central, pedestrian zone of the boulevard towards the port, ploughing its way through the crowd as people fled in panic.
The Catalan interior minister put the death toll at 13, with 50 injured. Another official said 80 people had been taken to hospital. About 500 metres down the boulevard, shortly after the famous Boqueria food market and before the Liceu opera house, the pavement is adorned with a colourful mosaic by artist Joan Miró. It was at here that the van, with its front fender smashed up, came to a halt. The pavement behind it was littered with injured people and 13 people were dead or dying. Several pushchairs could be seen abandoned at the side of the street.
The prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, cancelled his holiday in Galicia, north-west Spain, to return to Madrid. The Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, and the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, also cancelled their holidays and were returning to the city. The Catalan vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, said the regional government would hold an urgent meeting. Albert Tort, an off-duty nurse who was one of the first on the scene, said he tried to give an Italian tourist life-saving treatment, but there was nothing he could do. “The pavement was full of bodies,” he told TV3.
Puigdemont 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. Other witnesses spoke of panic as people fled the scene. Jordi Lino, who was on a bus, said: “First I saw people running and then the van. There were injured people in the middle of Las Ramblas.”
According to early reports, the vehicle sped down the centre of the 1km-long road, which is usually packed with people, until it hit a newspaper kiosk and stopped. Lourdes Porcar told Spanish TV that she saw the van running people over. “It was going very fast, without caring about who was in its way,” she said.
Witnesses spoke of panic and seeing people covered in blood. Several pushchairs could be seen abandoned at the side of the street. Patrick Tuenter, 20, a law student from Nijmegen, Netherlands, was on the first day of his holiday. He reported “a scene of total chaos”, as he returned from the beach. “People were screaming, there were a lot of wounded people,” he told the Guardian.
Jordi Lino, who was on a bus going down Las Ramblas, said: “First I saw people running and then the van. There were injured people in the middle of the Ramblas.” At least 600 people were stuck inside restaurants in the area waiting for permission to leave, as police locked down the area and warned people to stay away.
Lourdes Porcar told TV3 she saw the van running people over. “It was going very fast, without caring about who was in its way,” she said. In the panicked moments after the attack, rumours flew around the city, including reports of gunfire in El Corte Inglés department store - later confirmed as untrue by local police, who advised people to follow official sources for updates.
Police discounted reports that an armed man was holed up in a Turkish restaurant near Las Ramblas. People were advised to follow official sources for updates. Catalan emergency services advised people to stay away from the area around Plaça de Catalunya. Police asked people to communicate via social media and messaging instead of phone calls, as mobile telephone coverage was saturated.
Metro stations and shops close to site of the crash were closed. More than 1,000 people used Facebook volunteering to help the victims, with offers ranging from water to shelter and translation.
The spokeswoman for a chain of 10 restaurants in the area said that about 600 people were stuck inside their establishments waiting for permission from the police to leave. Oukabir, the suspect reported to have rented the Fiat van used in the attack, is reported to have spent time in a Catalan jail in 2012. He is understood to be from North Africa but to possess a NIE, the identity document issued to foreigners who are resident in Spain.
Catalan emergency services said people should stay away from the area around Plaça de Catalunya. Police have also asked people to communicate via social media and messaging instead of phone calls, as mobile telephone coverage is saturated. A second van - presumed to be a getaway vehicle - had been hired at the same time as the Fiat from the Telefurgo rental company in Sabadell, near Barcelona, was found 80km away in Vic an hour and a half later.
Mobile phone footage shows panicked, screaming tourists fleeing through the narrow streets beside Las Ramblas. Islamic State claimed responsibility using the group’s Amaq news agency. “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,” the agency said, referring to a United States-led coalition against the militant group.
Las Ramblas, a street of stalls and shops that cuts through the centre of Barcelona, is one of the city’s top tourist destinations. People walk down a wide, pedestrianised path in the centre of the street, but cars can travel on either side. Spain has so far been spared the kind of extremist violence that has occurred recently in France, Belgium, Germany and the UK, but it was hit by what is still Europe’s deadliest jihadi attack in March 2004, when bombs exploded on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people in an attack claimed by al-Qaida-inspired extremists.
Spain has so far been spared the kind of extremist violence that has occurred recently in France, Belgium and Germany, but it was hit by what is still Europe’s deadliest jihadi attack in March 2004, when bombs exploded on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people in an attack claimed by al-Qaida-inspired extremists. Terrorists have turned vehicles into weapons in France, Germany, Sweden and the UK in the past year; most recently when a car was driven into a crowd protesting against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Terrorists have turned vehicles into weapons in France, Germany and the UK in the last year. Last July, 86 people were killed in Nice when a 19-ton truck mowed down people on the beach promenade. A Christmas market in Berlin was the scene of a similar atrocity in December, when 12 people were killed by a truck packed with steel. While, in London a speeding van hit pedestrians before attackers launched a knife attack in cafes and restaurants at Borough market in June. Eight people died in the attack, while at least 48 were wounded. Last July, 86 people were killed in Nice when a 19-ton truck mowed down people on the beach promenade. A Christmas market in Berlin was the scene of a similar atrocity in December, when 12 people were killed by a truck packed with steel.
As details of the attack emerged, world leaders offered condolences. “It is with profound sorrow and anguish that I have learnt of the terrorist attack that has struck at the heart of Barcelona this afternoon,” said Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission. “I hold a special thought for the heroic people who responded by running towards danger to help others and to the security forces who are working to keep the population safe. The commission is at the full disposal of the authorities for any help or assistance necessary.” In April, five people died after a lorry attack in a busy shopping area in central Stockholm. In June, a speeding van hit pedestrians on London Bridge before attackers launched a knife attack in cafes and restaurants at Borough market. Eight people died in the attack, while at least 48 were wounded.
British prime minister Theresa May said: “My thoughts are with the victims of today’s terrible attack in Barcelona and the emergency services responding to this ongoing incident. The UK stands with Spain against terror.” Isis claimed responsibility for the attacks in Nice, Berlin and London Bridge. The Uzbek national suspected of the Swedish lorry attack had expressed sympathy for the group.
Donald Trump responded by reviving an already debunked anecdote about a US general dipping bullets in pig’s blood to fight Islamic militants over a hundred years ago. “Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists when caught,” the US president tweeted. “There was no more Radical Islamic Terror for 35 years!” According to western intelligence officials, Islamist propaganda has switched its tactics, from calling on people to travel to Syria to join a self-declared caliphate, to urging them to carry out attacks in the countries where they live.
US secretary of state Rex Tillerson said his country stood by to help, adding that allies were resolved “to find terrorists around the world” and bring them to justice. Such vehicle attacks generally require very little planning, and no wider network, leaving little or no opportunity for the authorities to detect and stop them.
As details of the attack emerged, condolences poured in from around the world, with a typically controversial response from Donald Trump. The US president revived an already debunked anecdote about a US general dipping bullets in pig’s blood to fight Islamic militants more than 100 years ago.
The British prime minister, Theresa May, said the UK stood with Spain against terror and Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, said: “I hold a special thought for the heroic people who responded by running towards danger to help others and to the security forces who are working to keep the population safe.”