Spain attacks: Police shoot dead 5 suspects in 12 hours of terror
A wide-ranging anti-terror operation was under way in Spain on Friday after police killed five men wearing fake suicide belts in a town south of Barcelona, hours after a van mowed down dozens of people in the heart of the city.
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In the early hours of Friday morning, police intercepted a group of five attackers in Cambrils, 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Barcelona. All five were shot dead by police. They were wearing fake explosive belts, authorities said.
Hours earlier, at 5pm, a white van 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.
Police later shot dead the driver of a car at a checkpoint in Barcelona, but said he was not the perpetrator of the attack on Las Ramblas.
On Wednesday evening, one person was killed after an explosion at a house in Alcanar, south of Barcelona and Cambrils. Police said the victim was a Spanish national.
Joaquim Forn, the Catalan Interior Minister told Cadena Ser Radio that all three incidents were connected. Three people have been arrested.
Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy labeled the Barcelona attack as "jihadi terrorism." Rajoy's government has declared three days of mourning across Spain.
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Shootout in Cambrils
Details of the incident in Cambrils were still sketchy on Friday morning. According to a spokeswoman for Catalonia's president, police engaged in a shootout with five alleged terrorists after they drove an Audi A3 into several pedestrians. It was unclear how the incident began.
Photos showed the black Audi, flipped upside down with its windows smashed out, being removed from the scene.
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, with what appeared to be "a metallic kind of belt" around their waists.
Foch 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.
A white van with blue markings drove into a packed crowd of locals and visitors enjoying an afternoon along Las Ramblas, a predominantly pedestrian area full of cafes, bars and street performers.
"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.
More than a dozen people were killed, with the death toll expected to rise, while about 100 others were injured. The driver escaped and is still on the run.
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.
Police shot dead the driver of a car who ran into and lightly injured two police officers at a checkpoint in Barcelona Thursday.
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Victims from 24 countries
The Catalonia government said the Barcelona victims came from Spain, France, Germany, Holland, Argentina, Venezuela, Belgium, Peru, Romania, Ireland, Cuba, Greece, Macedonia, UK, Austria, Pakistan, Taiwan, Canada, Ecuador, USA, Philippines, Kuwait, Turkey and China.
Belgium's foreign ministry spokesman Jose de Pierpont told CNN early Friday one Belgian was among those killed in the attack.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that 26 French nationals were injured, at least 11 seriously.
Australia's foreign minister Julie Bishop announced four Australians were injured, one was missing and three needed consular support.
A Hong Kong citizen was "lightly" injured in the attack, Chinese state media Xinhua reported.
There was no information on the identities of the people killed in the Thursday attack, or those injured in Friday's incident in Cambrils.