Injured people are treated in
Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 17,
2017 after a white van jumped the
sidewalk in the historic Las Ramblas
district, crashing into a summer
crowd of residents and tourists and
injuring several people, police
said. (AP Photo/Oriol Duran)
Attacker
drives
van into
Barcelona
crowd;
12 dead,
80 hurt
By
BARRY
HATTON
and
JOSEPH
WILSON
ap.org
BARCELONA,
SPAIN -
A white
van
jumped
up onto
a
sidewalk
and sped
down a
pedestrian
zone
Thursday
in
Barcelona's
historic
Las
Ramblas
district,
swerving
from
side to
side as
it
plowed
into
tourists
and
residents.
Authorities
said 12
people
were
killed
and 80
were
wounded,
15 of
them
seriously,
in what
they
called a
terror
attack.
The
afternoon
attack
in the
northeastern
Spanish
city was
the
country's
deadliest
since
2004,
when
al-Qaida-inspired
bombers
killed
192
people
in
coordinated
attacks
on
Madrid's
commuter
trains.
It left
victims
sprawled
out in
the
street,
spattered
with
blood or
crippled
by
broken
limbs.
Others
fled in
panic,
screaming
or
carrying
young
children
in their
arms. As
witnesses
and
emergency
workers
tried to
help the
wounded,
police
brandishing
hand
guns
launched
a search
of side
streets
looking
for
suspects.
The
president
of
Spain's
Catalonia
region,
Carles
Puigdemont,
provided
the
updated
casualty
figures,
correcting
an
earlier
government
tweet
that
said 13
people
were
killed.
Police
immediately
cordoned
off the
city's
broad
avenue
and
ordered
stores
and
nearby
Metro
and
train
stations
to
close.
They
asked
people
to stay
away
from the
area so
as not
to get
in the
way of
emergency
services.
A
helicopter
hovered
over the
scene.
A few
hours
later,
Catalan
police
tweeted:
"We have
arrested
one man
and we
are
treating
him as a
terrorist."
They
said no
suspects
were
holed up
in a
Barcelona
bar, as
local
media
had
reported,
and
began to
evacuate
stores
on the
sprawling
avenue
where
scores
of
people
had
taken
cover.
State-owned
broadcaster
RTVE
reported
that
investigators
think
two vans
were
used -
one for
the
attack
and a
second
as a
getaway
vehicle.
Las
Ramblas,
a street
of
stalls
and
shops
that
cuts
through
the
center
of
Barcelona,
is one
of the
city's
top
tourist
destinations.
People
walk
down a
wide,
pedestrian
path in
the
center
of the
street
while
cars can
travel
on
either
side.
A taxi
driver
who
witnessed
the
attack,
Oscar
Cano,
told TV3
the van
jumped
onto the
central
pedestrian
area at
a high
speed
and
swerved
from
side to
side.
Tamara
Jurgen,
a Dutch
visitor
who had
just
arrived,
said she
and a
friend
were
inside a
Zara
clothing
store
steps
from
Placa
Catalunya
when the
attacker
drove
down Las
Ramblas.
They
were
held
inside
for more
than two
hours
until
police
cleared
that
block.
"Everyone
was
screaming
and
running.
We had
to run
up to
the roof
and
throw
our bags
over a
wall. We
were all
together
along
this
(3-meter,
10-foot)
wall and
we were
scared
we were
going to
have to
jump,"
she
said.
Keith
Fleming,
an
American
who
lives in
Barcelona,
was
watching
TV in
his
building
just off
Las
Ramblas
when he
heard a
noise
and went
out to
his
balcony.
"I saw
women
and
children
just
running
and they
looked
terrified,"
he said.
He said
there
was a
bang -
possibly
from
someone
rolling
down a
store
shutter
- and
more
people
ran by.
Then
police
arrived
and
pushed
everyone
a full
block
away.
Even
people
leaning
out of
doors
were
being
told to
go back
inside,
he said.
Fleming
said
regular
police
with
guns
drawn
and riot
police
were at
the end
of his
block.
"It's
just
kind of
a tense
situation,"
Fleming
said.
Carol
Augustin,
a
manager
at La
Palau
Moja, an
18th-century
place on
Las
Ramblas
that
houses
offices
and a
tourism
center,
said the
van
passed
right in
front of
the
building.
"We saw
everything.
People
started
screaming
and
running
into the
office.
It was
such a
chaotic
situation.
There
were
families
with
children.
The
police
made us
close
the
doors
and wait
inside,"
she
said.
In the
years
since
the 2004
Madrid
bombings,
Spanish
authorities
have
reported
arresting
nearly
200
jihadis,
but the
only
deadly
attacks
were
claimed
by the
Basque
separatist
group
ETA.
Those
ETA
bombings
in the
past
decade
claimed
five
lives in
all.
Condolences
and
offers
of help
poured
in from
Spain's
allies.
U.S.
President
Donald
Trump
wrote on
Twitter:
"The
United
States
condemns
the
terror
attack
in
Barcelona,
Spain,
and will
do
whatever
is
necessary
to help.
Be tough
&
strong,
we love
you!"
U.S.
Secretary
of State
Rex
Tillerson
offered
assistance
to
authorities
in Spain
and said
U.S.
diplomats
in Spain
were
helping
Americans
there.
He vowed
the
United
States
would
never
relent
in
tracking
down
terror
suspects
and
holding
them to
account.
"Terrorists
around
the
world
should
know
that the
United
States
and our
allies
are
resolved
to find
you and
bring
you to
justice,"
Tillerson
said in
a
statement.
British
Prime
Minister
Theresa
May said
the U.K.
"stands
with
Spain
against
terror"
while
France's
president
and the
mayors
of Paris
and Nice
are
among
the
French
dignitaries
offering
support
for
Barcelona
after a
deadly
van
attack.
French
President
Emmanuel
Macron
tweeted
Thursday
evening:
"All my
thoughts
and
solidarity
from
France
for the
victims
of the
tragic
attack
in
Barcelona.
We will
remain
united
and
determined."
European
Commission
President
Jean-Claude
Juncker
said
"this
cowardly
attack
has
deliberately
targeted
those
enjoying
life and
sharing
time
with
family
and
friends.
We will
never be
cowed by
such
barbarism."
Spain
has been
on a
security
alert
one step
below
the
maximum
since
June
2015
following
attacks
elsewhere
in
Europe
and
Africa.
Spanish
police
have
also
been
involved
in the
arrests
of more
than 200
suspected
jihadis
since
then.
Cars,
trucks
and vans
have
been the
weapon
of
choice
in
multiple
extremist
attacks
in
Europe
in the
last
year.
The most
deadly
was the
driver
of a
tractor-trailer
who
targeted
Bastille
Day
revelers
in the
southern
French
city of
Nice in
July
2016,
killing
86
people.
In
December
2016, 12
people
died
after a
driver
used a
hijacked
trick to
drive
into a
Christmas
market
in
Berlin.
There
have
been
multiple
attacks
this
year in
London,
where a
man in a
rented
SUV
plowed
into
pedestrians
on
Westminster
Bridge,
killing
four
people
before
he ran
onto the
grounds
of
Parliament
and
stabbed
an
unarmed
police
officer
to death
in
March.
Four
other
men
drove
onto the
sidewalk
of
London
Bridge,
unleashing
a
rampage
with
knives
that
killed
eight
people
in June.
Another
man also
drove
into
pedestrians
leaving
a London
mosque
later in
June.
---