CAMBRILS, SPAIN — (CNN) 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.
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 and the incident was connected to the Barcelona attack.
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.
Latest developments:
— Police have arrested three people in connection with the spate of incidents in Spain. Reuters said one was Moroccan and another was from Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla. Neither was the driver of van used in the Barcelona attack. A third man was arrested in the town of Ripoll on Friday.
— The Catalan Interior Minister said all three incidents were linked, either by common action or family connections. It was unclear how many people were involved, and how many suspects were still on the run.
— Police were still on the scene in Cambrils after they shot five terrorists dead. A number of controlled explosions were carried out. Las Ramblas was expected to reopen on Friday once police have cleared the area.
— People from at least 24 countries are among the injured, according to the Catalonia government, including dozens of French citizens. A Belgian has been announced as one of 13 people declared dead.
— King Felipe, the Spanish head of state, will lead a moment of silence at 6 a.m. ET on Friday morning at Plaça de Catalunya in Barcelona.
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 from the scene 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.
The night before the Barcelona attack, one person was killed following an explosion in a house in Alcanar, a town to the south of Barcelona and Cambrils. Police said the victim was a Spanish national and the incident was connected to the Barcelona van attack.
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 were seriously in the attack.
Australia’s foreign minister Julie Bishop announced four Australians had been injured, one was missing and three needed consular support
AHong 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.
Pocket of radicalization
The Barcelona attack was Spain’s deadliest terror outrage in 13 years — in 2004, a suspected Al Qaeda terrorist cell blew up Madrid commuter trains killing 192 people and injuring thousands.
It was the sixth time in 13 months a vehicle has been used by Islamist terrorist to cause mass casualties in a European country, including major incidents in France, Germany, the UK and Sweden. Spain had escaped the carnage until Thursday.
But Fernando Reinares, director of the Global Terrorism Programme at the Elcano Royal Institute, told CNN Barcelona had long been a “prime scenario” for jihadi activities.
“It is the major radicalization pocket in the country. Barcelona is a big port city, close to France (and) has a long history of jihadis. The first jihadi ever in this country was arrested in Barcelona in 1995,” Reinares said.
Since then, a quarter of all individuals arrested in Spain for jihadist terrorism have been residents of Barcelona, according to Reinares.
World leaders ‘stand united’
Messages of condolence poured in from across Europe. London major Sadiq Khan described the Barcelona attack as barbaric. “London stands with Barcelona against the evil of terrorism,” he said on Twitter.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the attack in Barcelona “revolting,” her spokesman tweeted. “We are mourning the victims of this disgusting attack in Barcelona — in solidarity and friendship side by side with the Spanish.”
US President Donald Trump tweeted a swift denunciation of the Spain attacks: “The United States condemns the terror attack in Barcelona, Spain, and will do whatever it is necessary to help. Be tough & strong, we love you!”
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