Giant concrete planters have been installed at a tourist hotspot in Benidorm sparking claims police are trying to protect holidaymakers from potential terror attacks.
The heavyweight containers have been placed at entrances to an area known as British Square, which is packed with bars and restaurants.
Residents believe it is aimed at preventing a repeat of the deadly terror attack in Barcelona earlier this month, in which ISIS-inspired jihadists drove a van through crowds on the city’s Las Ramblas boulevard.
Benidorm local Mike Skinner put photos of the planters on the Benidorm and Costa Blanca News and Information Forum on Facebook, adding that there had been ‘lots of heavily armed police on patrol’.
Giant concrete planters have been installed at a tourist hotspot in Benidorm sparking claims police are trying to protect holidaymakers from potential terror attacks
The heavyweight containers have been placed at entrances to an area known as British Square, which is packed with bars and restaurants
According to The Sun, Mr Skinner said: ‘Huge plants in concrete pots placed at each side of British Square in Benidorm outside Cafe Benidorm and Lucky Rocks.’
Police in Benidorm are yet to comment on the claims.
But locals have already had their say on the apparent safety measure at the tourism hotspot, which is known for attracting large numbers of British holidaymakers.
Scott Blair described the installations as a ‘good move’ while Ann Robson said it was ‘sad but necessary’.
It comes days after a 51-year-old German woman died from injuries suffered in the August 17 vehicle attack in Barcelona, raising the overall death toll in Spain’s recent attacks to 16.
Residents believe it is aimed at preventing a repeat of the deadly terror attack in Barcelona earlier this month, in which ISIS-inspired jihadists drove a van through crowds on the city’s Las Ramblas boulevard
The woman died in the intensive care unit of Barcelona’s Hospital del Mar, according to the regional health department.
The death raised the toll to 14 in the van attack in Barcelona’s popular Las Ramblas boulevard.
Another man was stabbed to death in a carjacking that night as the van driver made his getaway, and another woman died in an August 18 vehicle-and-knife attack in the nearby coastal town of Cambrils.
More than 120 people were wounded in the attacks. Authorities say 24 remain hospitalised, five of them in critical condition.
On Saturday, an estimated 500,000 peace marchers flooded the heart of Barcelona shouting ‘I’m not afraid’ – a public rejection of violence following extremist attacks, Spain’s deadliest in more than a decade.
Emergency workers, taxis drivers, police and ordinary citizens who helped immediately after the Las Ramblas attack led the march. They carried a street-wide banner with black capital letters reading ‘No Tinc Por,’ which means ‘I’m not afraid’ in the local Catalan language.
Benidorm local Mike Skinner put photos of the planters on the Benidorm and Costa Blanca News and Information Forum on Facebook, adding that there had been ‘lots of heavily armed police on patrol’
The phrase has grown from a spontaneous civic answer to violence into a slogan that Spain’s entire political class has unanimously embraced.
Spain’s central, regional and local authorities tried to send an image of unity Saturday by walking behind the emergency workers, despite earlier criticism that national and regional authorities had not shared information about the attackers well enough with each other.
In a first for a Spanish monarch, King Felipe VI joined a public demonstration, walking in Barcelona along with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and other officials. A separate anti-violence rally was held in the northern town of Ripoll, home to many of the attackers.
Eight suspects in the attacks are dead, two are jailed under preliminary charges of terrorism and homicide and two more were freed by a judge but will remain under investigation.