Madrid (dpa) – Spanish policeearly Friday said they had killed five alleged perpetrators of a suspectedterrorist attack in the resort town of Cambrils, hours after a similar attackin Barcelona.
“Weare working on the hypothesis that events in Cambrils were a terrorist attack.We have killed its alleged perpetrators,” Catalan police wrote on Twitter.
Thenews came hours after police launched a manhunt for the driver of a van whoploughed into crowds of people on one of Barcelona’s busiest thoroughfares,killing 13 people and injuring 100.
Sevenpeople were injured in the attack in Cambrils, 120 kilometres south ofBarcelona, including one police officer. Local media said the attackers hadalso tried to drive a vehicle into pedestrians when they were fired on bypolice.
Bombdisposal experts were trying to determine whether the men had been wearingexplosives belts and police warned that controlled explosions were beingcarried out.
Cataloniapolice said they believed the two attacks, as well as an explosion on Wednesdaynight in Alcanar, 200 kilometres south of Barcelona, in which one person diedand a house collapsed, were all connected.
However,Catalan police chief, Josep Luis Trapero earlier said that there was so far noevidence that another incident, in which police shot dead a man after he triedto evade a checkpoint while leaving Barcelona hours after the first attack, waslinked.
TheIslamic State terrorist group said via its affiliated Amaq news agency that its“soldiers” were responsible for the attack on Las Ramblas, a popular touristspot in Barcelona.
Traperosaid two men had been arrested in connection to the attack, a Moroccan and aSpanish national from the North African Spanish enclave of Melilla. Neitherwere known to have any previous links to terrorism.
However,a third man believed to have been the driver of the van, was still on the run,Trapero told reporters.
Theattack on Las Ramblas was “obviously a terrorist attack [carried out] with theintent to kill as many people as possible,” he said.
SpanishPrime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who cut short his holiday totravel to Barcelona,announced three days of official mourning and launched a staunch defence ofdemocratic values.
“Weare not only united in mourning. We are above all united in the resolute willto defeat those who want to take away our values and our way of life,” he said.
Catalonia’sInterior Minister Joaquim Forn said he expected the Bareclona death toll torise.
AlbertZeitler, a German at the scene near the area’s Museum of Contemporary Art, tolddpa by phone that it felt like a “war zone.”
“Policewith machine guns and weapons were running at me. Everyone fled into theshops,” he said. “I’ve never experienced anything like it.”
Anotherwitness, Erminia Mata told the El Mundo newspaper there were “a lot of peoplelying on the ground, covered with blood.”
Spanishmedia earlier released video footage of the scene showing motionless bloodiedbodies strewn across the street.
Videoson social media showed a van travelling with its side door wide open at highspeed down a pedestrian area.
Thenewspaper El Pais, citing police, said a Spanish passport was found inside thevehicle that hit the crowd.
Europehas been hit by a series of deadly terrorist attacks using vehicles over thelast two years including deadly incidents in Nice, Berlin and two in London.
Spain’sworst terrorist attack was in March 2004 when 191 people were killed by bombsplanted by Islamists on commuter trains in Madrid.
