Family and friends are ‘beside themselves’ after it was revealed seven-year-old Sydney boy Julian Cadman was missing following the terror attack in Barcelona, where a van ploughed into crowds of people in the Los Ramblas mall on Thursday.
Those who know Julian and his mother, who has been hospitalised with serious injuries in the Spanish city and is believed to be in a coma, have made increasingly desperate pleas for information via social media.
Family friend Sarah Auzner shared a picture of the youngster, who was born and raised in Kent, but moved to Australia three years ago, and begged followers to share it widely.
‘Please, please share his picture so he can be with his family,’ she wrote.
‘We are beside ourselves with worry.’
Family and friends are sharing increasingly desperate pleas for information on the location of Julian Cadman, 7, who is missing in Barcelona following a terror attack which killed 14
The youngster became separated from his mother during the attack. She is now in a serious condition in a Barcelona hospital, suffering facial and spinal injuries and reportedly in a coma
Julian was travelling with his mother Jom at the time, and the pair were in Barcelona to attend the wedding of Mrs Cadman’s niece. The boy’s father, Andrew, stayed behind in Sydney to work.
Mrs Cadman has suffered spinal and facial injuries, Nine News reported.
Mr Cadman’s boss Scott told 2GB the man had no idea his wife and child were in any danger before arriving at work about 6am on Friday and listening to the news. When he failed to make contact with them, he began to panic.
‘He’s on his way to the airport at the moment, but we found out about an hour later his son was with her and he’s missing, and we haven’t heard anything since.
‘He’s flying to Spain at the moment not knowing if his son is dead or alive.’
The man continued to say Mr Cadman was ‘absolutely beside himself’, and ‘can’t do much more than sort of put one foot in front of another at the moment’.
His aunt Maricar Querimit Estera shared her concerns via social media, asking followers to ‘Pray for my nephew who still missing in [the] Barcelona attack’.
‘Your family are waiting for you,’ she added in what appeared to be a direct plea to Julian.
The boy, who is a student at St Bernadette’s Primary in Lalor Park, is last believed to have been wearing a white collared shirt, aviator sunglasses and a printed cap.
Julian is believed to have been wearing a white collared shirt, aviator sunglasses and a printed cap when he was last seen
It is believed that Julian was born in Tunbridge Wells in Kent and raised in the UK, and his mother was travelling on a British passport.
Norma Canaveral, who is Jom’s aunt – but is called ‘granny’ by Julian – told MailOnline: ‘We are so worried. I am just waiting for news, hoping for good news.’
The 66-year-old, from London, added: ‘I don’t know what to say. His mother is in the hospital, she’s OK, but she became separated from Julian and we don’t know where he is. All we can do is wait.
‘Julian’s a really sweet boy. He loves to dance, he’s a lovely, bubbly boy.’
Julian’s aunty Norma Canaveral, who he calls ‘granny’, says she is just waiting for news on the whereabouts of the seven-year-old
Julian’s father Andrew is flying from Sydney to Spain to try and find his son
British Prime Minister Theresa May has also announced the UK will join the search, telling reporters they were ‘urgently looking into’ reports a dual citizen was missing.
Four Australians were injured in the attack, including Mrs Cadman, Sydney bank worker Suria Intan, who works at the Commonwealth Bank in Lidcombe, and two Victorian men who were hit by the attacker’s van.
Ms Intan, who grew up in Indonesia, and had been travelling through Europe with three friends, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Suria Intan, a bank worker from Sydney, has been seriously injured in the terror attack
Ms Intan was due home this weekend, but is now lying in a Barcelona hospital bed with serious injuries.
The two Victorian men from Melbourne’s west – both of whom were hit by the attacker’s car – have been discharged after receiving treatment, one reportedly for head injuries.
The mother of a friend travelling with the two men told 3AW it was not until her son checked into his hotel that he was told his companions were ‘involved in a terrorist attack, they are injured’.
On Friday afternoon, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said eight Australians in total were caught up in the horror that unfolded on Thursday – the four who were injured, three who have required consular support and the one unaccounted for.
‘We are concerned, but we are working closely with authorities to determine the whereabouts of the one Australian unaccounted for,’ Ms Bishop told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.
Ms Intan had been travelling through Europe with friends and was due home this weekend
An Australian tourist is missing in Barcelona after the terror attack and four were injured
Eight Australians have been affected by the Barcelona terrorist attack – including one who was hit by the van, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said
Authorities said at least 13 people were killed in Thursday’s attack – which has been claimed by Islamic State – and 100 more injured, 15 of them seriously.
However, Ms Bishop said Catalonian authorities have informed her that the death toll has reached 16.
She said there have been two other attacks are related to the Las Ramblas attack – one in the resort town of Cambrils, about 120km south of Barcelona, which police thwarted.
Five suspects were killed by police and six people were reportedly injured.
‘At this stage there are no reports that any Australians were involved in the incident in Cambrils,’ Ms Bishop said.
‘There has also been reports of an explosion in a house in Alcanar, that is about 200km south of Barcelona.
‘Again, there have been no reports at this stage of any Australians involved in that attack, but we believe one person has been killed.’
Earlier, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australia stood in ‘absolute resolute solidarity’ with Spain in the battle against Islamist terrorism.
‘This is a global battle against terrorism,’ Mr Turnbull told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
Early Friday, Catalan police posted a tweet saying they shot and killed four suspects and wounded a fifth in a resort town south of Barcelona.
They said officers ‘shot down the perpetrators’ to ‘respond to a terrorist attack.’
It wasn’t immediately clear from the tweet if the five shot were suspects in the Las Ramblas attack or were allegedly targeting another location.
Meanwhile, a young Australian woman spoke of how she cheated death for the third time this year.
Julia Monaco, 26, from Melbourne, was in a shopping mall with a friend when a van plowed into pedestrians in the Las Ramblas district of Barcelona on Thursday.
It was her third brush with terrorism since she began travelling around Europe three months ago but she told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell that she won’t let it stop her from seeing the world.
In June, she was put in a lockdown on the London Underground while out with friends when terrorists plowed into people on London Bridge before going on a knife rampage in nearby Borough Market.
Days later, she was in Notre Dame in Paris when a police officer was stabbed outside the famous cathedral.
Julia Monaco was in a shopping mall with a friend when a van plowed into pedestrians in the Las Ramblas district of Barcelona on Thursday
‘I don’t feel like I want to go home,’ she told Neil Mitchell on Friday morning.
‘I feel like I want to stay here and not let them – whoever they may be – win.
‘I’m going to see what I came here to see.’
Ms Monaco and her friends Alana Reader and Julia Rocca, also from Melbourne, were in the store on Placa de Catalyuna when they saw people outside running for their lives.
The doors were locked and she spoke of how she watched terrified pedestrians banging on the windows trying to get inside from the street.
‘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.
It was her third brush with terrorism since she began travelling around Europe three months ago. Pictured from left, Julia Rocca, Steph Lamb, Julia Monaco and Alana Reader on holiday in Rome
Ms Monaco said those inside huddled at the back of an Urban Outfitters store and were told to lie face-down on the floor and away from the windows.
When they were finally allowed to leave, they had to walk back to their hostel and avoid the numerous streets that had been closed by police.
‘You just have to keep going. I’m sure though tomorrow morning my mum will say ‘come home’, but I don’t think I’ve been scared out of travelling,’ she added.
Melbourne man Michael Christou was about 300m from the initial scene of the Las Ramblas carnage and was also nearby when eight people including two Australians were killed in the London Bridge van attack in June.
‘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.’
Australian Adam James and his wife, who was pushed over and suffered minor injuries as they ran from the scene, were in Istanbul last year when a police bus was blown up in a terror attack.
‘It’s happened again. It’s a very real thing,’ he said.
People react and stand around in the Las Ramblas area in Barcelona, Spain as police investigate a damaged van, believed to be the one used in the terror attack
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said 16 people were killed in the attack and at least 100 injured
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.
Police immediately cordoned off the city’s broad avenue and ordered stores and nearby Metro and train stations to close.
Other witnesses also described horrific scenes and fearful crowds in the aftermath of the van attack, which has been claimed by the Islamic State.
MFB Commander Graeme O’Sullivan was one of the first responders at Melbourne’s Bourke Street tragedy in January.
He and his wife saw the latest carnage unfold from the rooftop of their Barcelona hotel.
‘We were up on the sixth floor roof terrace, just the pool area, enjoying a few drinks,’ he told Nine.
‘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 event was chilling.
‘Bourke Street wasn’t terrorism and this appears to be, but the result is still the same,’ he told Melbourne radio 3AW.
Forensic policemen arrive in the cordoned off area after a van plowed into the crowd
Spain has been on a security alert one step below the maximum since June 2015 following attacks elsewhere in Europe and Africa
Australian cyber safety expert Susan McLean was about 100m away as the van zigzagged 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.
‘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.
Keith Fleming, and American living in Barcelona, said he was watching television in his building on a side street just off Las Ramblas when he heard a noise and went out to the balcony to investigate.
He says he saw ‘women and children just running and they looked terrified.’
Mr Fleming heard a bang, possibly from someone rolling down a store shutter, as more people raced by.
He said armed police arrived and pushed everyone a full block down the street.
Australian witnesses described the attack as reminiscent of the Bourke Strert Mall rampage in January (above)
State-owned broadcaster RTVE reported that investigators think two vans were used – one for the attack and a second as a getaway vehicle.
The attack in the northeastern Spanish city was the country’s deadliest since 2004, when al-Qaeda-inspired bombers killed 192 people in coordinated attacks on Madrid’s commuter trains.
Spain has been on a security alert one step below the maximum since June 2015 following attacks elsewhere in Europe and Africa.
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 north London mosque later in June.