Authorities in Spain’s Catalonia on Friday said that the five terror suspects killed in a police shootout at the seaside resort of Cambrils had run over pedestrians and into a police vehicle in a car, reported AP. The men were also wearing fake bomb belts, the authorities said.
Catalonia’s Interior Minister Joaquim Forn said that the Cambrils attack was connected to Thursday’s attack in Barcelona, where a van mowed down pedestrians in the Las Ramblas tourist area, killing 13 people and injuring 100. “It [the Cambrils attack] follows the same trail,” Forn said. “There is a connection.”
The interior minister also told the local Onda Cero radio station that the suspects in Cambrils drove an Audi 3 and began plowing down people when they reached a crowded area near the promenade. A police vehicle was damaged, and six people were injured in the attack. Forn said the fake bomb belts were “very well made” as the police realised they were not real only after a carrying out a controlled explosion.
Meanwhile, Catalonia President Carles Puigdemont told Onda Cero radio that there was still “one terrorist out there”. “We don’t have information regarding the capacity [of the alleged terrorist] to do more harm,” he added. It is not clear whether he was referring to the van driver in the Barcelona attack, who is on the run.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack.
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