Monday, 23rd December 2024

Police kill FIVE suspects in second Spanish attack

Yesterday 14 people were killed in Barcelona

Friday, 18th August 2017

Spanish police have shot dead five attackers who ran over people in the seaside town of Cambrils.

Special forces were deployed to Cambrils just hours after a van ploughed into crowds in Barcelona's famous Las Ramblas boulevard in which 14 people were killed and at least 100 others injured.

The Catalan government says the two attacks are linked.

The suspects in Cambrils were wearing what transpired to be fake explosive belts and a bomb squad carried out several controlled explosions, police said.

Six civilians and a police officer were hurt when the attackers ran them over in an Audi A3.

Cambrils was where the operational leader of 9/11 met with one of the al Qaida planners before the atrocity.

The town's mayor, Cami Mendoza, said the suspects centred their attack on the narrow path to Cambrils' boardwalk.

Footage of the operation in the early hours of the morning at the popular seaside resort, situated 62 miles southwest of Barcelona, showed bystanders running for cover amid the sound of gunfire.

Screams and police sirens could be heard in another clip filmed from inside a restaurant as diners ran for cover after hearing gunshots.

Catalan authorities urged local residents in a Twitter post to "stay home" and "stay safe".

Police said the Cambrils plot was linked to the earlier attack involving a white Fiat van - the driver of which remains at large and is the focus of a police manhunt - and an explosion 100 miles away in Alcanar.