The Latest on terror attacks in Spain

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Three people have now been arrested in connection with the Barcelona van attack that killed at least 13 people, and injured another 100. However, none of those arrested are the driver of the van, who witnesses described as trying to hit as many people as he could, by weaving in and out of crowds of people. Authorities say another attack in the town of Cambrils, south of Barcelona, is connected to the van attack. Five suspects carrying fake bomb belts were shot and killed by police, and five civilians and one police officer were injured. Officials are working to determine if an explosion in the town of Alcanar in which one person was killed is also connected to the attacks

BARCELONA, Spain – The Latest on terror attacks in Spain (all times local):
10 a.m.
Catalan authorities are confirming that the five suspects killed in a police shootout in the seaside resort of Cambrils had plowed down pedestrians and police in a car attack and were wearing fake bomb belts.
The attack early Friday in Cambrils came hours after a white van mowed down tourists and locals in the popular Las Ramblas promenade in Barcelona, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 100.
Catalonia’s interior minister, Joaquim Forn, tells Onda Cero radio that the suspects in Cambrils were driving in an Audi 3 and began plowing down people when they reached a populated area near the boardwalk. A police car was damaged and an officer was among the six people injured.
Forn says the suspects killed in a subsequent shootout with police were wearing fake bomb belts. He says the belts were very well made, and that authorities only determined they were phoney after a controlled explosion.
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9:35 a.m.
A town mayor in Belgium says a woman from his town has died in the van attack in a major tourist area in the Spanish city of Barcelona. Patrick Dewael confirmed in a tweet late Thursday that the woman was from Tongeren, 90 kilometres (56 miles) east of Brussels, and sent his condolences. He told Belgian radio that he had presided over her wedding in 2014. Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders also confirmed that two Belgians were wounded in the attack, one of them seriously.
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9:20 a.m.
Barcelona’s famed Ramblas walkway has quietly reopened to the public, the morning after a van rampage that killed 13 and wounded more than 100. Police closed down the city centre Thursday evening, after the van zigzagged down the packed Ramblas before the driver escaped. Friday morning, residents and tourists were allowed past police lines and slowly trickled back to their homes and hotels. The city centre remained under heavy surveillance. A demonstration that will include a minute of silence honouring the victims was announced by public officials for Friday at noon at the Plaza Catalunya, next to the top of the Ramblas, where the deadly attack began.
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9:05 a.m.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has condemned the van attack in Barcelona, and extended his condolences to the families of those killed. In a statement Friday, Abbasi said such terrorist attacks cannot scare the brave Spanish people. He said “so long as the terrorists underestimate the spirit of the societies they seek to undermine, they will lose”. Abbasi’s comment came a day after a van barrelled down a busy walkway in central Barcelona, swerving back and forth as it mowed pedestrians down. Thirteen people were killed and 100 were injured, 15 of them seriously, in what authorities called a terror attack.
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9 a.m.
Danish authorities have confirmed that there are two Danes among those “lightly wounded” following the deadly van attack on tourists in the Spanish city of Barcelona. Leaders in the Nordic and Baltic region are rushing to condemn the attack. Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said he was “horrified by reports from Barcelona,” while his Danish counterpart Lars Loekke Rasmussen said Europe has “again been attacked by terror.”
In Norway, Prime Minister Erna Solberg called it “a cowardly attack,” her Estonian colleague Juri Ratas called it “brutal” and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said it was “despicable.
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8:50 a.m.
Catalonia authorities say a third person has been arrested in connection with the Barcelona van attack that killed at least 13 people. Catalonia Interior Minister Joaquim Forn told Catalunya Radio on Friday that the suspect was taken into custody in the northern Catalan town of Ripoll. On Thursday, one of the two suspects detained in the hours after the Las Ramblas attack was arrested in Ripoll and another in Alcanar. Police said neither of the two people detained Thursday was the driver of the white van that plowed down pedestrians. The driver escaped the scene on foot.
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8 a.m.
French officials say 26 French nationals were among the dozens injured in a van attack in Barcelona, and Australia says one of its citizens is unaccounted for. Spanish authorities previously said the dead and injured are from 24 countries. The attack involved a van that veered onto a busy promenade in downtown Barcelona and struck pedestrians. Thirteen people were killed and 100 injured. One of the dead was Belgian, and Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters: “We are concerned for one Australian who remains unaccounted for.”France’s Foreign Ministry said Friday at least 11 of the French nationals who were hurt had serious injuries.
Australia also says three of its citizens were injured, one seriously. Two with slight injuries were Taiwanese. A Greek woman and a Hong Kong resident were also hurt.
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The item timed at 8 a.m. has been corrected to show that 26 French nationals were injured, not 25.

 

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