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Teh One Who Knocks
08-17-2017, 04:41 PM
FOX News


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DEVELOPING: Several people were injured after a white van rammed into dozens of people in a popular tourism district of Barcelona Thursday in what local police described as a likely "terror attack."

The incident took place on Las Ramblas of Barcelona, the famous main pedestrian walk way that crosses the city. Police described the incident on Twitter as a "massive crash."

In a photograph shown by public broadcaster RTVE, three people were lying on the ground in the street and were apparently being helped by police and others.

A grisly video of the incident appeared to show at least five people lying motionless on the ground, with legs twisted and heads bloodied.

"It was real chaos, people started running, screaming. There was a loud bang," eyewitness Ethan Spibey told Sky News.

The Spanish newspaper El Pais quoted unnamed police sources as saying the perpetrators of the crash were holed up in a bar in Tallers Street. There was no immediate police confirmation of the report.

Catalan emergency services said people should not go to the area around Placa Catalunya, according to Reuters.

Witnesses told El Pais the driver ran over several people, and there were injured people lying on the ground.

El Pais, citing a police source, said the driver of the van fled the scene after the crash

One witness said the van "has trampled people while crossing the traffic light."

The Ministry of the Interior said on Twitter: "There has just been a massive crash on the Ramblas in Barcelona by a person with a van. There are injured."

Emergency services in Catalonia say they have asked the Metro and train services in the area to close.

Police cordoned off the broad street and shut down its stores. They asked people to stay away from the area so as not to get in the way of the emergency services. A helicopter hovered over the scene.

The U.S consulate in Barcelona said on Twitter it was "aware of a reported incident at Las Ramblas in Barcelona. Please avoid the area and monitor local police @mossos for updates."

"Americans in Spain: If you are safe, be sure to notify friends and loved ones. If you use social media, be sure to update your status," the consulate tweeted.

The National Counterterrorism Center, the government hub for threat analysis, confirmed to Fox News the center is monitoring the events in Barcelona and note the use of a vehicle as a weapon.

Since July 2016, vehicles have been used to ram into crowds in terror attack across Europe, killing well over 100 people in Nice, Berlin, London, and Stockholm.

Las Ramblas is a packed tourist area in central Barcelona whose central feature is a broad promenade leading to the water. The stretch is lined with numerous shops, restaurants, a sprawling market and Gaudí architecture.

People walk down a wide, pedestrianized path in the center of the street, but cars can travel on either side of the area.

Teh One Who Knocks
08-17-2017, 07:21 PM
Reports are 13 dead and 80 injured

Hikari Kisugi
08-17-2017, 07:35 PM
Absolutely awful.

Going there in a week.
Fucking went to London a week after the last attack also.

I need to stop booking trips.

Teh One Who Knocks
08-17-2017, 07:46 PM
And now the reports are saying that ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.

redred
08-17-2017, 09:23 PM
They would :roll: properly nothing to do with them yet happy to take credit

deebakes
08-18-2017, 02:17 AM
:rip: :(

Teh One Who Knocks
08-18-2017, 10:33 AM
They would :roll: properly nothing to do with them yet happy to take credit

Do you have evidence that they didn't do it or weren't behind it?

Teh One Who Knocks
08-18-2017, 10:34 AM
FOX News and The Associated Press


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Spain is conducting a major anti-terror operation Friday in a bid to hunt down the driver who plowed into pedestrians on a busy street in central Barcelona a day earlier, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 100.

Fifteen of the injured people were in serious condition and authorities warned the death toll could rise.

Security forces were mobilized following a deadly terrorist attack Thursday afternoon, where authorities say a jihadist used a van to target people in one of the Catalonia capital’s most popular streets and managed to escape the scene by foot.

The injured and dead were from 24 different countries, including France, Germany, Pakistan and the Philippines, a government statement said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack and said the perpetrators were “soldiers of the Islamic State,” the terrorist organization’s Amaq news agency said. The claim has not been independently verified.

"The perpetrators of the attack in #Barcelona are Islamic state soldiers and carried out the operation on command of [ISIS' leader] of targeting coalition countries," the statement read.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rejoy, meanwhile, called the tragedy a "jihadist attack" and announced three days of official mourning, Reuters reported.

Initial reports in the Spanish media named Driss Oukabir, a French citizen of Moroccan origin, as the person driving the van after his identification documents were found in the vehicle used in the terror attack.

But the man shortly turned himself in to police, denying any involvement in the terror plot and claiming his documents were stolen, possibly by his brother, La Vanguardia reported. Police haven't confirmed that the man's brother was the driver of the van.

It remained unclear how many people were involved in the terror attack.

Police have detained three men, including a Moroccan, a man from Spain's autonomous African city of Melilla, and one man whose identity was unknown. Two of the men did not drive van. The third man's arrest circumstances remain unknown.

Meantime, security authorities have thwarted a second terror attack in Cambrils, a town south of Barcelona, killing 5 suspects equipped with bomb belts trying to replicate the earlier attack in Barcelona. But the belts were later found to be fake, authorities said.

Local government confirmed the incident in Cambrils was linked to the attack in central Barcelona.

State-run broadcaster RTVE reported that seven people were injured in the incident, including two seriously.

According to El Periodico, as Fox News reported earlier, the CIA warned local Spanish authorities two months ago about a possible terror attack, following a number of similar vehicular attacks across Europe, including in London, Nice, Berlin and Stockholm.

The latest terror attack was the deadliest attack in Spain since the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 192 people.