The Spanish coastal town where the second terror attack took place last night was also the where two of the masterminds of 9/11 met in 2001.
At midnight Friday, five men in fake suicide vests ploughed a car into revellers in the seaside resort of Cambril, injuring six civilians and a policeman, before being shot dead by police.
Some 16 years ago, the town also played host to two of the deadliest terrorist killers in modern history.
Terrorist: Mohamed Atta, the pilot of the first plane that crashed into the World Trade Centre, met with Al-Qaeda ‘key facilitator’ Ramzi bin al-Shibh, in Cambril, Spain, weeks before 9/11
Atrocities: The pair are believed to have stopped off in Cambrils before hiding away in a nearby safehouse where they spent several days planning the 9/11 attacks
Mohammed Atta, 33, hijacked and piloted the Boeing 767 that crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, on September 11, 2001.
Egyptian-born Atta was the oldest of the 9/11 hijackers, considered a ringleader of the group, and deeply involved in planning the attacks that killed 2,996 people, and injured over 6,000.
In July 2001, just weeks before 9/11, Atta flew to Spain to meet with Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni national allegedly also chosen by Osama bin Laden to be a hijacker.
Atta picked up bin al-Shib on July 9, and together the pair drove to Cambril, where they spent the night in a hotel.
They are then believed to have driven to a safehouse near Tarragona, 12 miles away. During the following days, the pair are believed to have planned the 9/11 attack.
New attack: A man loads an overturned car used by five men in fake suicide vests to mow down revellers in the seaside resort of Cambril, injuring seven, before being shot dead by police
A police officer walks near an overturned car at the spot where terrorists were intercepted by police in Cambrils
According to reports Bin al-Shibh was meant have been one of the hijackers, according to reports, and was later accused by the US authorities of making a “martyr video” in preparation for the attack.
But he was unable to obtain a US visa and instead helped to find flight schools for the hijackers in the US and arrange financial transactions in support of the September 11 operation.
Bin al-Shibh, 45, was arrested in 2002 in Pakistan and taken to Guantanamo Bay, where he is currently being held by the US authorities, accused of being a “key facilitator” for the September 11 attacks.