Suspects in Spain’s twin terror attacks had been planning an even bigger assault than the deadly car rampages they carried out, police said.
Police said they shot dead five “suspected terrorists” who had knocked pedestrians down in the Catalan seaside resort of Cambrils in a second attack in the early hours of Friday, and arrested four others as Spain reeled from the deadly violence.
Catalonia’s regional police identified three of the suspects who were killed as Moroccan nationals.
Photo: AP
They were Moussa Oukabir, 17, Said Aallaa, 18, and Mohamed Hychami, 24.
Police on Friday said they suspect 12 people of involvement in the attacks: the five who were killed, four who were arrested and three who have been identified, but who remain at large.
Officials suspect that two of these three might have died in a blast at a house in the town of Alcanar, about 200km south of Barcelona on Wednesday evening.
Initially treated as a random gas blast, police later linked the explosion to the Barcelona assault, believing occupants of the house were preparing a larger attack, possibly a vehicle bomb, with the use of gas canisters and slipped up.
Police removed dozens of gas canisters from the house, a photographer at the scene said.
“They were preparing one or several attacks in Barcelona and an explosion in Alcanar stopped this as they no longer had the material they needed to commit attacks of an even bigger scope,” Josep Lluis Trapero of Catalonia’s police said.
After the explosion the suspects quickly went on to commit “more rudimentary” attacks.
These involved the vehicles ploughing into pedestrians in Barcelona and Cambrils, he added.
The Cambrils suspects had an axe and knives in the car as well as fake explosive belts stuck to their bodies, police said.
Both Spanish attacks followed the same modus operandi.
Drivers deliberately targeted pedestrians with their vehicles, the latest in a series of such assaults in Europe.
Otso Iho of Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center said the Spanish assaults, which stretched out over two different cities, appeared to be “a much higher level of coordination than has been typically present in previous attacks.”
It is also believed to be the first time the Islamic State group has claimed an attack in Spain.
In a poignant moment on Friday, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Spanish King Felipe VI and the president of Catalonia held a minute of silence in Barcelona. It was followed by the crowd applauding and shouting “not afraid.”
However, in a sign of the tensions sparked by the attacks, about 20 far-right extremists protested the march.
Some held up signs reading “No more mosques” or “Refugees not welcome anymore.”
Scuffles broke out between the far-right protesters and march participants.
Details on Friday started to emerge on the identity of victims, as did tragic stories of families ripped apart.
Witnesses in Barcelona described how the van pushed through the crowd, leaving bodies strewn along the boulevard as people fled for their lives, screaming in panic.
“We were on the city tour bus, we were 20 feet [6m] from the accident when it happened,” said Alex Luque, a 19-year-old student from New York.”We heard the van and the impact with people and then we saw people running.”
Then just eight hours later attackers struck in the early hours of Friday in Cambrils. An Audi A3 car rammed into pedestrians, injuring six civilians and a police officer. One civilian, a woman, later died of her injuries.
The police shot dead the five attackers.
They also said they had arrested four suspects — three Moroccans and a Spaniard.
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