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The culprits of the dread assaults in Barcelona and Cambrils initially wanted to utilize dangerous gadgets to wreak more prominent decimation however were clearly frustrated in light of the fact that their materials exploded rashly, police said Friday.
A house in Alcanar, south of Barcelona, was demolished in an impact Wednesday night – hours before one attacker mowed down many individuals in the core of Barcelona, killing 13. A gathering of five assailants at that point crashed into walkers in the town of Cambrils, killing one, in the early hours of Friday.
Catalan police chief Jose Lluis Trapero told reporters that explosives were found in the Alcanar property and that police “are working on the hypothesis that these attacks were being prepared in that house.”
The explosion meant the attackers were unable to use material they were planning to deploy in attacks in Barcelona, Cambrils and perhaps elsewhere, he said. The attack in Barcelona, capital of the Spanish region of Catalonia, was therefore “more rudimentary than they originally planned,” Trapero said.
The revelations pointed to an alarming conclusion: that authorities knew nothing of an advanced plot to mount a spectacular terror attack until an accidental explosion at the perpetrators’ base — and despite the eyecatching setback the terror cell still managed to carry out two further improvised attacks without impediment.
Key developments
— Four people have been arrested: one of them in Alcanar and three in Ripoll. Three were Moroccan citizens and another was Spanish; they ranged in age from 21 to 34. None was on the radar for terrorism.
— People from at least 34 countries are among the injured in the attacks, Catalan authorities said. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said an American citizen was among the dead. Two Italians were the first victims to be named.
— Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy labeled the Barcelona attack “jihadi terrorism.” Rajoy’s government has declared three days of mourning across Spain.
— Rajoy, the Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont and other officials held a crisis cabinet meeting in Barcelona.
— King Felipe, the Spanish head of state, led a moment’s silence at Barcelona’s Plaça de Catalunya — near where the attack began. Crowds later joined in lengthy applause. “We are not afraid, we won’t forget,” they chanted.
King Felipe VI of Spain leads a moment of silence in Plaça de Catalunya on Friday.
Shootout in Cambrils
Police intercepted a group of five attackers in Cambrils, 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Barcelona, early on Friday morning.
Officers engaged in a shootout with the five attackers after they drove an Audi A3 into several pedestrians. All five were shot dead by police, four of them by one officer, police said.
A woman subsequently died from her injuries, Catalan emergency services said, taking the number of dead in both attacks to 14.
Photos showed the black Audi, flipped upside down with its windows smashed out, being removed from the scene.
Police officers stand near an overturned car onto a platform at the spot where terrorists were intercepted by police in Cambrils, Friday, Aug. 18.
Catalan police tweeted that the suspects “carried an ax and knives in the car and belts with false explosives attached to the body,” adding that before being shot they had wounded a person in the face with a knife.
Alex Folch, 28, told CNN he saw the immediate aftermath of the shootout from his holiday apartment on the fifth floor of the Club Nautic Cambrils, on the Consulat de Mar.
He said he saw three people lying on the ground surrounded by police, one with what appeared to be “a metallic kind of belt” around the waist.
Folch said he could see snipers on the roof beside him and later heard controlled explosions conducted by police.
Carnage in Barcelona
The first attack began at about 5 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, in one of Barcelona’s most popular tourist districts.
Barcelona and Cambrils attacks: What we know so far
A white van with blue markings careered into terrified crowds on Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s feted thoroughfare, when the street was packed with locals and tourists. At least 13 people were killed and more than 100 injured. The driver of the van fled on foot and was believed to be still at large on Friday.
“I saw people flying into the air and everyone was running into the shops on either side,” witness Ali Shirazinia told CNN. He saw the van drive past him.
Shirazinia said the driver appeared to be driving “in a zig-zag motion” as fast as he could, trying to hit as many people as possible. “It was just a really, really horrific scene of immediate carnage,” he said.
The van used in the Barcelona attack was abandoned at the scene, August 18, 2017.
Thirteen people were killed, with the death toll expected to rise, while about 100 others were injured.
The ISIS media wing, Amaq, has said the Barcelona attackers were “soldiers of the Islamic State,” but stopped short of explicitly claiming responsibility for the attacks or providing evidence for their claims.
A car later ran over police officers at a checkpoint in Barcelona. Trapero said Friday that one of the occupants of the car was found to have been stabbed. He added that there was no link to any of the other incidents.
Explosion in Alcanar
The debris of a house in the village of Alcanar, Catalonia, is seen Thursday after it collapsed due to an explosion.
The explosion in Alcanar on Wednesday night left one person dead — a Spanish national — and another seriously injured. Both were found inside the house. Six other people were also injured.
The house collapsed completely under the force of the blast, a Catalan fire department statement said.
One of the suspects arrested in connection with Thursday’s Barcelona attack was detained in Alcanar, Trapero told reporters.
“They were trying to make explosives out of butane gas among other things, there must have been some sort of accident that avoided greater damage” in an attack, said Trapero.
The first to be identified was an Italian, Bruno Gulotta, who worked for Tom’s Hardware Italia. He was a much-loved colleague with a partner and two young children, the company said. He had been on holiday in Barcelona with his family. The second victim named was another Italian, Luca Rosso.
Belgium’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Jose de Pierpont said one Belgian was among those killed in the attack.
A 74-year-old Portuguese woman has also been identified by the Portuguese government as one of the victims in Barcelona.
Las Ramblas reopened Friday morning but reminders of the previous day’s horror were all around.
Las Ramblas: The attack locals feared was coming
In some outdoor cafés, full glasses of beer and sangria sat out on tables, left behind after people scattered. Overturned chairs and napkins were strewn on the street. Waiters were beginning to pick up the pieces as restaurants opened.
Flowers, candles and messages of solidarity piled up through the day at makeshift shrines along the street.
Some shocked residents and tourists had come to the normally bustling avenue to pay their respects to the attack victims. Others gathered for a march intended to show unity in the face of fear.
“It was an attack against humanity,” Sandra Gregorio said after laying flowers at one of the many memorials that has sprung up. “Look at this street, Barcelonians are not afraid,” her boyfriend Marc Guzmán added. “We have to be united, now more than ever.”
Hajar Menssouri, a 24-year-old laboratory technician and student, told CNN: “I joined the march to show that fear would not divide us.”
Earlier, resident Federico Colmenarejo, 32, walked along Las Ramblas in a daze. His apartment overlooks the street — and he said a phone call from his grandmother at the time of the attack had saved his life because it had stopped him going out.
“Just to think how is it possible that I cross this street every day on my way to work. I can’t believe it. In Barcelona this never happens,” he told CNN.
