Wanted: Police believe Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, was at the wheel of the van which killed 13 people and injured more than 100 in the heart of Barcelona’s tourist district on Thursday
A terror suspect who evaded police in the aftermath of Thursday’s attack in Barcelona is now believed to have been the van driver who killed 13 pedestrians in Las Ramblas.
Spanish police are searching for 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub, who they are increasingly sure was at the wheel of the rented vehicle which mowed down innocent victims at the popular tourist spot.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Abouyaaqoub, who was part of a terror cell which originally planned to fill a lorry with explosives before carrying out the attack in Barcelona.
A further two terrorists could also be on the loose, La Vanguardia reports, but this is unconfirmed.
Investigators originally thought 17-year-old Moussa Oukabir, who rented two vans linked to the atrocity using documents stolen from his older brother, had been at the wheel.
Oukabir, from the town of Ripoll, 60 miles north of Barcelona, was gunned down along with four other jihadists in the early hours of Friday morning at the coastal resort of Cambrils.
Also killed were Said Aallaa, 18, and Mohamed Hychami, 24, who were armed with knives and machetes and were wearing what appeared to be suicide belts. The identities of the other two dead jihadis have not been released.
Abouyaaqoub is now the prime suspect for police investigating who the driver was, El Pais reports, but his whereabouts is unknown. Spain’s government will decide today whether to raise the country’s terror threat level.
Oukabir’s mother, Fatima Ouhnine, and sisters Fahima and Hanane are believed to have been taken in for questioning by Spain’s anti-terrorist police following a raid on his home today.
This is a common procedure when a terror suspect is identified. Also arrested is Aallaa’s brother, Mohamed Aallaa, according to El Pais. So far four suspects have been arrested.
Moussa Oukabir, 17, is thought to have been at the wheel when a rented Fiat van was driven into crowds in the Las Ramblas district of Barcelona on Thursday afternoon
A handcuffed suspect was taken into custody in connection with the attacks in Ripoll today. A large crowd gathered and jeered as the man was led away. He has not been identified
THE TERROR CELL: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR
Spanish authorities believe the two attacks were the work of a jihadi terror cell of between eight and 12 individuals.
They were stockpiling canisters of deadly butane gas at an address in Alcanar, 120 miles south of Barcelona, when the house exploded shortly before midnight on Wednesday, killing one and injuring 16. Arrest warrants were issued on Friday for four named individuals, although three of them were later confirmed to be dead.
Suspected terror cell members:
One plotter was killed in an explosion at a home in Alcanar, 120 miles from Barcelona. It is believed plotters were stockpiling deadly butane gas to use in the attack. Another suspect, from the Spanish enclave of Mililla in North Africa, was arrested there
DEAD: Moussa Oukabir – Believed to have rented the truck used in the Las Ramblas attack. He was among the five killed in Cambrils in the early hours of Friday morning. An arrest warrant for him had earlier been issued.
DEAD: Said Aallaa – The 18-year-old was from the village of Ribes de Freser. He is one of four cell members identified by Spanish police, and his death was confirmed on Friday evening. His brother Mohamed has reportedly been arrested, but it is not known if he was one of the plotters.
DEAD: Mohamed Hychami – The 24-year-old lived in Ripoll, the same town as Oukabir.
WANTED: Younes Abouyaaqoub – Another suspect identified by police, the 22-year-old is also from Ripoll. An arrest warrant has been issued for him, and Spanish police confirmed on Friday evening that he is still at large.
WANTED: Two more, as yet unnamed, suspects are wanted by anti-terror police, La Vanguardia reports.
DEAD: Unnamed – Two jihadists were shot dead in Cambrils in the same incident in which Oukabir, Aallaa and Hychami were killed. Neither of them has been identified.
DEAD: Unnamed – One terror cell member died in an explosion in Alcanar on Wednesday, which has been linked to the two attacks. No details about him have been released. Initial reports suggest a second person could also have died in the blast, although this has not been confirmed. Police wrote on Twitter: ‘We work to determine if remains in Alcanar are a second corpse. We are working to determine if biological traces from Alcanar are human.’
ARRESTED: Unnamed – One alleged plotter was taken into custody in Alcanar, where the explosion happened. He is a citizen of Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla.
ARRESTED: Two suspects of Moroccan origin. At this stage no further information has been released, but one was pictured being taken into custody in Ripoll.
ARRESTED: Driss Oukabir – The older brother of Moussa, police issued a photo of the 28-year-old in the immediate aftermath of the Barcelona attack, saying he had rented one of the vans connected to the atrocity. He later handed himself in at a police station in Ripoll, claiming Moussa had stolen his ID documents. He denies being part of the terror cell.
Arrested: One of those being questioned by police is Driss Oukabir, whose picture was released in the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s atrocity. He later handed himself in to police, claiming his younger brother Moussa had stolen his ID documents in order to rent a van used in the attack
One of the gang died in an explosion at an address in Alcanar, 120 miles south of Barcelona, shortly before midnight on Wednesday.
Canisters of explosive butane gas, as well as plastic explosive TATP – nicknamed Mother of Satan – were found at the home, which was destroyed in the blast.
Had the accidental explosion not happened, police chief Josep Lluis Trapero said, Thursday’s attack would have had an even ‘bigger scope’.
Police in Catalan believe there may have been a second fatality at the house, stating on Twitter: ‘We are working to determine if remains in Alcanar are a second corpse. We are working to determine if biological traces from Alcanar are human.’
Seven-year-old Julian Cadman, who was born in Kent but moved to Australia three years ago, is among those missing since Thursday’s atrocity.
His mother, Jom, has been listed as being in a serious condition in hospital.
The youngest victim of the massacre was just three years old.
Also killed in the attack was 42-year-old Jared Tucker, from California, as well as Italians Bruno Gulotta and Luca Russo, Belgian mother Elke Vanbockrijck, 44, and Spaniard Fransisco Lopez Rodriguez, 57.
A three-year-old boy, believed to be Mr Rodriguez’ grand-nephew, also died. He was walking with his mother, grandmother, sister and aunt – who was injured trying to save him.
Spaniard Pepita Codina, 75, was killed in the attack, while Ana Maria Suarez, 61, died after being stabbed by terrorists in Cambrils.
Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau has said one Canadian was killed and four others were injured in Barcelona.
Julian Cadman, seven, who was born in Kent but living in Sydney at the time of the terror attack, is missing. Italian Bruno Gulotta, 35, the father of two young children, was crushed to death on Las Ramblas in Barcelona on Thursday
Luca Russo, 25, an engineer from Venice, in Italy, was also confirmed among the dead. He was on holiday at the time of the attack alongside Marta Scomazzon, who is believed to be his fiancee
Spanish authorities say 57-year-old Francisco Lopez Rodriguez (pictured on Las Ramblas moments before the attack) died on the spot after being hit by ISIS terrorists. He was earlier reported as missing
Heidi Nunes, from California, said online that her husband Jared Tucker, 43, is missing after the pair got separated on Las Ramblas during the attack. Rex Tillerson has confirmed one American death and said the State Department is ‘still confirming the deaths and injuries of others’, without giving specific details
On Friday police confirmed terrrorists Hychami, 24, and Abouyaaqoub, 22, are from Ripoll, the same small town in the north of Spain as Oukabir, while killed cell member Allaa, 18, was from the nearby village of Ribes de Freser.
Authorities said the two attacks were the work of a terror cell, believed to have had between eight and 12 members, which plotted the atrocity for some time from the house in Alcanar.
One cell member, originally from Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla, was arrested in Alcanar.
Trapero said police are working on the theory that the suspects were preparing a different type of attack, using explosives or gas, and that the explosion – which was first blamed on a gas leak – prevented them from carrying out a far more deadly rampage.
Chilling documents found in the wreckage contain details of the planned attack, police have revealed.
Moussa Oukabir’s brother Driss Oukabir, 28, was initially named as a suspect but later handed himself in to a police station in Ripoll. He said his brother had stolen his identification documents in order to rent two vans.
One of these was used to mow down innocents in the heart of Barcelona, while the other was found in the town of Vic and is believed to have been intended as a getaway vehicle.
This rented van brought new terror to the streets of Europe when it was driven at speed down a busy street in central Barcelona, killing 13 including a three-year-old boy. Police have suggested the attack then joined in a second attack
The second attack was launched in the resort of Cambrils. Footage has emerged of police bringing the second assault to an end by shooting dead one the attackers. He was hit with several bullets but clambered to his feet, climbed some crash barriers and then walked towards armed officers who had to shoot him again.
Police in Catalonia announced on Twitter early on Saturday morning that they had searched two buses in their hunt for the violent extremists.
The vehicles were searched in Girona and Garrigas, towns in the northwest of Catalonia, but the operation yielded nothing of importance. They provided no further information.
Surveillance video from inside a Barcelona museum captured images of the van used in the fatal attack. The video shows a person with a stroller just barely getting out of the white van’s way and other people on the walkway scattering as it barreled down the walkway.
The footage was shot Thursday from a security camera inside the Erotic Museum of Barcelona on an upper floor that pointed toward a window with a view of the promenade.
Museum goers who apparently either heard the van or people outside just after it went by are seen in the images gathering near the window and looking outside.
Moussa, said to be a Spanish national of Moroccan heritage, had previously written about ‘killing infidels’ in a chilling online post and has not been seen since the first attack took place.
Moussa can be seen smiling and posing in images on his social media accounts, which he also used to air hatred for non-Muslims. He also posted pictures of his dog, a Staffordshire bull terrier called ‘Vinny’ online.
The teenager, reportedly a resident of Barcelona, posted on social network Kiwi that, if he was king of the world, his first act would be to ‘kill the infidels’. Asked where he could never live, he replied: ‘The Vatican’.
The student, said to like football and IT, lived with his mother and sisters. Neighbours said his father moved out after the parents separated.
He used social media to rate girls’ profile pictures out of 10, guess how old other girls were, and joke that he would shoot someone who lied to him.
The older Oukabir brother, whose identity document is said to have been found in the van used in the attack, was arrested on Thursday and reportedly told police his brother took his passport.
After he and another suspect were detained on Thursday, police arrested a third person, a 34-year-old Moroccan said to be a friend of the brothers, in Ripoll on Friday.
A security expert told the New York Times that police believe two vans were hired using the elder Oukabir brother’s ID, after the plotters were unable to hire a larger truck.
Moussa pulling typical teenage poses on social media, where he also posted about hatred for non-Muslims. It is believed he used an ID belonging to his older brother Driss Oukabir, 28, (right) to rent the van used in the attack
An account with Moussa Oukabir’s name and photograph posted on social media that, on his first day ruling the world, he would ‘kill the infidels’ and ‘let Muslims follow the religion’
Spanish police are now looking for the teenager in connection with yesterday’s attack, which killed at least 13 people and injured more than 100
The older brother Driss, who is understood to have been arrested but denies involvement, was pictured online relaxing on a beach in a photo changed to his profile picture this week
PICTURED: THE GAS CONTAINERS FOUND IN RUBBLE OF HOME WHERE BARCELONA ATTACK WAS PLANNED
Large gas containers which had been filled with deadly butane have been recovered from the rubble of a home which exploded ahead of the Barcelona massacre.
Investigators believe a 12-strong terror cell planned to detonate the highly-explosive gas in its attack on the Catalan city’s tourist district.
But on Wednesday one member was killed in a blast, and police believe there may still be another body buried in the rubble of the house in Alcanar, which is more than 120 miles south of Barcelona.
A police officer walks past large numbers of gas canisters outside the address in Alcanar where a member of the terror cell died in the explosion ahead of Thursday’s atrocity in Barcelona
Security experts believe the gang wanted to hire a large truck like the one used to devastating effect in the Nice atrocity two years ago, but they were unable to get permits so had to settle with smaller vans
More than 20 butane gas canisters were found intact in the wreckage.
Security experts believe the gang wanted to hire a large truck like the one used to devastating effect in the Nice atrocity two years ago, but they were unable to get permits so had to settle with smaller vans.
One person linked to the atrocity has been arrested at the scene of the explosion, authorities confirmed on Thursday night.
Police confirmed on Friday afternoon that the suspects had been planning to use explosives in the mass killing.
Josep Lluis Trapero of Catalonia’s police said: ‘They were preparing one or several attacks in Barcelona, and an explosion in Alcanar stopped this as they no longer had the material they needed to commit attacks of an even bigger scope.’
Gas canisters which contained deadly butane gas were recovered from a home in Alcanar, 60 miles south of Barcelona, and were seen outside the address today
Moussa’s older brother was born in the small Moroccan town of Aghbala, on the edge of the Sahara Desert. He claimed online he was from Marseille in the south of France.
Driss spent a month in prison in Figueres, north of Barcelona, when he was suspected of sex crime, before being released in 2012. Police believe he was in the Spanish capital of Madrid last year.
He is said to have been previously arrested over violence and was not suspected of extremism. He reportedly denies being part of the terror plot.
The two brothers have lived in Ripoll for many years. Moussa had studied there and played football for a local youth team while Driss worked for some time in a restaurant.
The mayor of Ripoll, Jordi Munell, said: ‘They have lived here for many years and we have never had a problem. People here are sad and worried. We are a town of around 11,000 people with nine per cent immigrants. We practically all know each other.’
Police arrested a suspect, said to be a friend of the Oukabirs who is from Morocco said to be 30, in Ripoll today
‘I WOULD NOT LEAVE HIM… HE LOOKED LIKE MY SON’: BRITISH TOURIST COMFORTS INJURED YOUNG BOY
A shocked British father has spoken about the moment he rushed to help a young boy who had been injured in the Barcelona terror attack.
Harry Athwal, from Birmingham, saw the child lying injured in the road immediately after a van was driven deliberately into crowds of pedestrians.
He said he ignored warnings from police in order to comfort the boy.
Mr Athwal, 44, who was pictured comforting the child, told The Mirror: ‘The police were telling me to move but I would not leave him.
Harry Athwal, from Birmingham, was pictured comforting the child, who was injured when a van ploughed into crowds in Barcelona’s busy tourist district
‘All the time I was thinking the terrorists could come back but I was not leaving that child. To me, he looked like my own son.’
Mr Athwal said the boy’s leg was bent the wrong way and he could not detect a pulse.
He was in a restaurant on a first floor balcony when a van, believed to have been driven by teenage jihadist Moussa Oukabir was driven into crowds of tourists.
Thirteen people were killed in the atrocity, with the youngest being just three years old.
More than 100 were injured as the rented Fiat van swerved from side-to-side, ploughing down pedestrians on the busy Las Ramblas boulevard.
A man who was said to be a friend of the brothers was bundled into a car by Catalonian Police today as locals looked on
Police were today guarding a property in Alcanar, south of Barcelona, where members of the cell blew up a house and a suspect has been arrested since the attack
Police said they arrested two more people Friday, after an initial two were arrested Thursday – three Moroccans and one Spaniard, none with terror records.
At least three of them were detained in the northern town of Ripoll. Another arrest was made in Alcanar, south of Barcelona, where a gas explosion in a house Wednesday that killed one person was also being investigated as a focus of the probe.
Specialist anti-terrorist police had to protect a terror suspect from a baying mob of angry citizens after he was arrested a short distance from Moussa Oukabir’s home in Ripoll.
The terror suspect, named locally as Salh el-Karib, was lead out of a second-storey apartment in the centre of town with a blanket over his head.
A 50-strong mob of angry citizens cursed and threatened him as he was lead to a waiting anti-terror police van.
The crowd shouted: ‘Son of a b****. You will die for what you did in Barcelona. We know where you live. You have nowhere to hide.’
The terrorist gunned down twice lies dead on the ground – four of the five jihadis were shot dead by the same hero policeman, it emerged today
This is the overturned Audi A3 used by a gang of five jihadis in suicide belts who ploughed into crowds in the seaside town of Cambrils. The attack 70 miles from Barcelona came eight hours after 13 were killed in the Catalan city in a van attack
The two attacks the carried out in the north and south of Catalonia. Oukabir is from Ripoll in the north. A house was destroyed in an explosion in Alcanar, in the south, now linked to the attacks
The Cambrils terrorists bailed out of their crashed Audi clutching knives used to stab a woman in the face and were seen smiling at police who shot them dead in the street at around 1am.
Fitzroy Davies, from Wolverhampton, described how officers gunned down one of them and filmed the moment he rose to his feet and started ‘ranting and raving’ before being shot again.
He said: ‘He must have been on drugs. He took the first round of shots he fell on the floor, and then within two seconds, I thought I was watching a film, one of them horror films, the guy just stood up. He was taunting, smiling, laughing and he carried on walking to the police, and then they gave it to him again, a couple more shots and then he fell to the ground’.
He said that his suicide belt ‘looked fake’, adding: ‘It looked like he was wearing Coke cans on him’.
ISIS has been feeding its fighters cheap super-amphetamine pills called Captagon, used to induce euphoria and increase adrenaline during their murderous missions.
Police in Spain say that attacks in Barcelona, Cambrils had been prepared some time ago.
Senior police official Josep Lluis Trapero said Friday police believe the two attacks were connected with an explosion in a house in the town of Alcanar on Wednesday in which one person was killed. Police believe one of the person injured in that blast and now arrested had links to the two attacks.
Trapero said Cambrils terrorists carried an ax and knives in the car and body belts with false explosives.
A third man arrested in connection with the attacks is a Moroccan aged 30 and is said to be a friend Driss Oukabir, local media reported. He was held at an address in the small town of Ripoll.
Spanish police announced the arrest of the fourth man on Friday afternoon.
Armed officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra police force, wearing balaclavas to cover their faces, were posted outside some of the properties.
‘We don’t know if the driver [of the van that killed people] is still in Barcelona or not, or what direction he fled in,’ Catalan interior minister Joaquim Forn has told SER Radio.
‘We had local police on the scene, but we were unable to shoot him, as the Ramblas were packed with people.’
In the aftermath of the attack police circulated an image of the elder Oukabir, saying he had rented out a second van thought to be intended as a getaway vehicle – where his documents were found.
But police sources said Driss later handed himself in at a police station in Ripoll, 65 miles north of Barcelona, claiming his brother had stolen his documents, leading to police now focusing on finding Moussa.
Authorities tow the van which ploughed into the crowd on Las Ramblas on Thursday away from the scene
Damage: The front of the van can be seen destroyed in these images taken late last night
Hunted: The driver of the van is still on the run, but it is not known who was behind the wheel
This followed the arrests of Driss Oukabir and a Spanish national in connection with the mass killing, but neither of them was at the wheel of the van during the attack.
Authorities are reported to have found a Spanish passport in the van used in the attack, thought to belong to Driss, but the driver is still be at large.
In a separate incident, a car drove through a police roadblock outside Barcelona, injuring two officers, one of who suffered a broken leg.
A man, thought to have been the owner of the car, was found dead from stab wounds, suggesting the car may have been hijacked.
It is unclear whether the incident was related to the terror attack or the fate of the man who was driving the car, who is thought to have fled.
Catalonia’s regional president says that there’s at least one ‘terrorist still out there’ after the attacks in Barcelona and a seaside resort.
Spanish police has linked Thursday’s attack to an explosion that killed at least one person in a Alcanar, 120 miles south of the Barcelona
Police rushed over to treat a fellow officer after a driver in a Ford Focus drove through a roadblock outside Barcelona in the hours after the attack. The car’s owner was found dead inside. It is unclear whether the incident is linked to the terror attack
Carles Puigdemont also told Onda Cero radio ‘we don’t have information regarding the capacity to do more harm.’
News of the arrests came as the first victims of the attack were named today. Bruno Gulotta, a computer salesman from Legnano, in northern Italy, was named as being among the dead, as was 44-year-old Elke Vanbockrijck, from Tongeren in Belgium. She was on holiday with her husband and sons at the time.
Horrifying pictures and video from the scene of the Las Ramblas attack show armed police and paramedics rushing around the busy promenade in the centre of the city, as victims lie hurt in the street.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the atrocity on the city’s famous promenade, Las Ramblas.
Police launched ‘Operation Cage’ to capture those responsible for the attack and also denied early reports that hostages were being held in a bar in the city.
The force hinted that the driver of the van who launched the attack was still on the run and Mr Trapero said the attack was designed ‘to kill as many people as possible’.
He said police were connecting the attack to an explosion at a house in Alcanar, 125 miles south of Barcelona, on Wednesday night.
At least 13 people have been killed in this afternoon’s attack, and a suspect has been arrested by police
People left a fastfood with hands up as asked by policemen after a van ploughed into the crowd
The white van (pictured) drove into crowds of people who had gathered on Las Ramblas in Barcelona
Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy tweeted: ‘The terrorists will never defeat a united people who love liberty over barbarity. All of Spain is with the victims and families.
‘I am heading to Barcelona. Maximum coordination to arrest the attackers, reinforce security and attend to those affected.’
Eyewitnesses reported seeing people running away and screaming after the terror attack happened.
A witness called Angel said he had seen the attacker close up and described him as ‘a young man, maximum 25 years old, chestnut brown hair and skinny.’
Others described him as about 5ft 6in tall and wearing a blue and white striped top.
Another witness, Isaac, said: ‘The person was accelerating. He mounted the pavement to run people over. We saw the van passing by running people over at 50 miles an hour. It was as if it was driving through a field of corn.’
A taxi driver told Catalan TV station TV3: ‘The van was doing zigzags knocking over everyone he could. It was shocking.’
This aerial image shows the enormous crowds of thousands marking their respects for the Barcelona attacks
Pigeons fly over crowds gathered for a minute of silence in memory of the terrorist attacks victims in Las Ramblas
People holding a Catalan flag gathered for the memorial behind a row of regional police officers
Thousands of locals and tourists turned out to pay their respects to those killed in the attack and their families