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14 killed, 100 injured in as van plows into people in Daesh-claimed attack in Barcelona

A terrorist attack conducted by Daesh in Barcelona has claimed 14 leaves and caused 100 people to be injured on Thursday.

Agencies and A News WORLD
Published August 18,2017
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At least 14 people were killed and 100 others were injured after a van deliberately rammed into the crowd on Barcelona's Las Ramblas street in a terror attack claimed by Daesh on Thursday.

The death toll from Thursday's terrorist attacks in Spain has risen to 14, according to local emergency services.

The fourteenth victim was a female, according to the Catalan authorities on Friday. She was one of at least seven people injured in an attack in Cambrils town, close to Barcelona in the early hours of Friday.

Spanish police shot and killed five suspected terrorists in an operation after the attackers drove a vehicle into a crowd.

The incident in Cambrils followed another deadly vehicle attack in central Barcelona in which a Turkish national was among over 100 people wounded.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Friday 26 French were among those injured in Thursday's terror attack, 11 of them seriously.

Police say they have made three arrests in connection to the attacks, but the driver of the van used in the Barcelona attack is still believed to be on the run.

A minute's silence was held in Barcelona earlier on Friday, attended by Spain's Felipe VI and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Security across several Spanish cities has been tightened.

According to local media, police are searching for a man named Moussa Oukabir, believed to be the brother of Driss Oukabir one of those suspects arrested in Ripoll, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Barcelona.


Photo of the terror suspect, Driss Oukabir

The terrorist was captured and arrested by Catalan police later on, according to Spanish public broadcaster RTVE.The El Pais newspaper said several people were left lying on the ground. Police cordoned off the street and shut down its stores.

Reports, citing police sources, said the two perpetrators of the attack were holed up in a Turkish restaurant named Luna de Istanbul and were holding people hostage. The Turkish restaurant owner told Anews that at least 6 employees were still on shift when the attackers holed up inside. However, Catalan police later denied the claims, saying no suspects were holed up in a restaurant.

A second van linked to a separate attack in Barcelona has been found in the small town of Vic in Catalonia, local authorities said on Twitter.

Police have cordoned off the area and are inspecting the vehicle, the city council said.

The police force for Spain's Catalonia region said a car knocked down two police officers at a traffic checkpoint in Barcelona.

The Mossos d'Esquadra force did not indicate if the incident was related to the van attack in the city's Las Ramblas district.

Barcelona police later said in a tweet that the car and its driver were intercepted about 10 kilometers (6 miles) outside of the downtown area where the original attack happened.

Barcelona's mayor said that a minute of silence will be held Friday in the city to show "we are not scared."

Meanwhile, the Turkish foreign ministry condemned the 'heinous' attack 'in the strongest terms' and offered Turkey's support for "its friend and ally" Spain.

Catalan emergency services said that they had requested that metro and train stations be closed in the area close to the Las Ramblas avenue.

Las Ramblas, a street of stalls and shops that cuts through the center of Barcelona, is one of the city's top tourist destinations. People walk down a wide, pedestrianized path in the center of the street, but cars can travel on either side.

This is the first terror attack with a high number of fatalities in Spain since March 2004, when terrorists placed bombs on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and wounding more than 1,800.