MFB Commander Graeme O’Sullivan witnessed the attack from the rooftop of a Barcelona hotel
A Melbourne firefighter has said the carnage that unfolded in Barcelona reminded him of the Bourke Street rampage, in which he was a first responder.
MFB Commander Graeme O’Sullivan witnessed the attack from the rooftop of the Barcelona hotel where he and his wife are staying.
At least 13 people were killed and a further 100 wounded in the Spanish city when a van plowed into crowds in the busy Las Ramblas district.
An Australian woman is in hospital, in a serious but stable condition, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop revealed on Friday.
Two Victorian men have also been ‘affected’ by the attack, which has been claimed by ISIS.
‘I heard a large rumbling sound to begin with, a shot.. and some time after that screams and the horrific scene down there,’ he told 3AW.
‘We were up on the sixth floor roof terrace, just the pool area, enjoying a few drinks,’ he told Nine.
Mr O’Sullivan said the similarity to the Bourke Street Mall rampage was chilling. Above, the scene in the aftermath of the rampage in Melbourne in January
‘We could clearly hear thuds as the vehicle was running into people, and then a short time after that, obviously, several very loud sickening screams from the people involved down at street level.’
Mr O’Sullivan said the similarity to the Bourke Street Mall rampage was chilling.
A man in a car mowed down pedestrians, killing six, in Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall on January 20.
‘It was clear to us early on that it was another one of these incidents, a deliberate act’ he added.
‘A short time after that, we heard some gunshots.
‘What we’ve found out since is that the two offenders that were driving the van, once that had come to a stop, they jumped out of the vehicle and started to fire shots from handguns into the crowd and also into a restaurant nearby.’
Forensic policemen arrive in the cordoned off area after a van plowed into the crowd in Barcelona
‘We couldn’t believe it initially, there was just, I guess, a little bit too close to home
‘It’s very similar in a lot of ways to the Bourke Street incident back in January.
‘This time, there’s clearly links to terrorism and Bourke Street wasn’t that, but the result is still the same. It’s a terrible scene here.’
Australian cyber safety expert Susan McLean was about 100m away as the van zig-zagged down the busy avenue, mowing down pedestrians and leaving bodies strewn across the ground.
‘All of a sudden there was this tidal wave of people running from both Placa de Catalunya and Las Ramblas towards us screaming, crying and with absolute terror etched on their faces,’ she told Nine Network on Friday.
‘Several of them were calling ‘gun, gun’, so first of all we thought someone had been shot.
‘Then they just kept sort of – it was all in Spanish, it was very difficult to understand – but they were sort of pushing us into shops.’
Ms McLean, who was separated from her husband in the panic, also said the scene reminded her of the Bourke Street Mall rampage.
Julia Monaco (pictured second from left), from Melbourne, said local police ordered her and her friends inside a shop as as the attack happened
‘My first reaction was the Bourke Street massacre, because that is what it reminded me of – the vision of people fleeing in just such terror,’ she said.
Another Australian Gil Van Der Venne also witnessed the attack unfold from his hotel balcony.
‘You hear this screaming, the mayhem,’ he told 3AW.
‘There was at least five bodies that I saw. The van, I believe, had probably travelled about three-quarters down Las Ramblas.’
Julia Monaco, from Melbourne, said local police ordered her and her friends inside a shop as as the attack happened.
‘In a split second it all kind of changed and everyone just started running and panicking and running for their lives and crying and screaming and we were forced back into the store, told to get away from the windows and to get low on the ground,’ she told Nine.
‘We were huddled at the very back of the store, lying flat on the floor, and were in that position for about 20 minutes.’
An Australian woman is in hospital, in a serious but stable condition, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop revealed on Friday
Michael Christou, who is also from Melbourne, was with friends about 300m away.
‘We decided to get out of there. Everyone started to close the door shops so we just ran inside the shop and they closed the door.’
Chillingly, it’s not Mr Christou’s first experience of terrorism.
He was also nearby when the London Bridge van attack happened on June 3, killing eight people, including two Australian women, and injuring 48.
‘I think it’s following me but you kind of come over here (to Europe) and you expect it to happen but you don’t let it stop you from doing what you want to do.’
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the love and prayers of Australians are with the victims and their families.
‘Resolute with Spain in the fight to defeat terrorism we condemn the terrorist attack in Barcelona,’ he tweeted.
Thursday’s bloodshed was the country’s deadliest attack since 2004, when al-Qaeda-inspired bombers killed 192 people in coordinated assaults on Madrid’s commuter trains.