Tourists return to Las Ramblas days after Barcelona terror

Tourists and locals in Barcelona defied ISIS terrorists on Sunday as they returned in their thousands to Las Ramblas just days after 13 were crushed to death by a fanatical van driver.

Crowds milled down the streets, shopped for souvenirs and relaxed in cafes even as Younes Abouyaaqoub, who police say drove the van into pedestrians three days before, remained on the loose.

The only indication that anything had changed were the memorials to the dead and 120 people injured, along with those buying flowers to lay alongside the candles and tributes that have piled up.

But while Barcelona healed, elsewhere in Spain the attack opened up fresh wounds as far-right activists defaced mosques in Seville and Grenada with racist slogans. 

Las Ramblas returned to a sense of normality on Sunday as crowds of tourists and locals flocked back to its market just three days after a van-driving jihadi killed 13 and wounded 120 here

Families, friends and lovers browsed for souvenirs, took pictures and enjoyed the warm summer air in defiance of ISIS terrorists who had tried to break the city with their attack on Thursday

Families, friends and lovers browsed for souvenirs, took pictures and enjoyed the warm summer air in defiance of ISIS terrorists who had tried to break the city with their attack on Thursday

Cafes were again filled with people out for a bite to eat despite Younes Abouyaaqoub, the suspected Barcelona van attacker, still being on the run. Police believe he may have fled to France

Cafes were again filled with people out for a bite to eat despite Younes Abouyaaqoub, the suspected Barcelona van attacker, still being on the run. Police believe he may have fled to France

Shoppers stopped to buy flowers to lay at memorials to the 13 victims which have sprung up across the city as the latest victim was identified as seven-year-old British-Australian national Julian Cadman

Shoppers stopped to buy flowers to lay at memorials to the 13 victims which have sprung up across the city as the latest victim was identified as seven-year-old British-Australian national Julian Cadman

The Seville Mosque Foundation’s centre was targeted with anti-Muslim slogans including one which read: ‘Killers, you’re going to pay’ and another that used a derogatory term for North Africans.

The graffiti, which also included threats to behead Muslims with a machete, was discovered on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile a mosque in Granada was attacked with flares by a gang of around 12 people in what has also been described as a ‘racist’ attack. 

Right-wing organisation Hogar Social has been accused of carrying out the raid and were driven off by police, according to the witness, who asked not to be named. 

On Sunday police identified one of those killed in the attacks as seven-year-old Juilian Cadman, a British-Australian citizen who had been on holiday with his mother Jumarie when he was hit and killed.

The boy had first been reported missing by his grandfather on Friday after it emerged that his mother was seriously injured in hospital.

Father Andrew had flown from Sydney, where the family moved three years ago after Julian grew up in Tunbridge Wells, to search for his missing boy – but his efforts proved in vain.

The youngest victim to be identified so far is a three-year-old Spaniard Javier Martinez, who was struck and killed along with his grand-uncle, Francisco Lopez Rodriguez, 57.

Rodriguez’ wife, Roser, was also hit by the van and is now recovering from her wounds in hospital.

Information on the victims underlines the senseless barbarity of the attack, which targeted no one race, nationality or creed of people – but was simply a barbaric attack designed to kill and main as many people as possible in one go.

The dead span ages from three to 80, and came from 34 countries around the world, some of them – such as Kuwait and Pakistan – being Muslim-majority.

Authorities believe the attack, and another in Cambrils several hours later which killed one and injured 16, including a police officer, were carried out by a single terrorist cell which likely had 12 members.

Tourists browsed for football shirts hours before Barcelona FC took to the pitch in their own act of defiance as they refused to be bowed by the ISIS attacks

In Cambrils, where a second car and knife attack saw one Spanish woman killed and five jihadis shot dead, life also continued apace as people paid a visit to the beach

In Cambrils, where a second car and knife attack saw one Spanish woman killed and five jihadis shot dead, life also continued apace as people paid a visit to the beach

Sunseekers packed the sands at El Regyeral Beach in Cambrils on Sunday. Sixteen people, including a police officer, were also wounded during the attack here in the early hours of Friday

Sunseekers packed the sands at El Regyeral Beach in Cambrils on Sunday. Sixteen people, including a police officer, were also wounded during the attack here in the early hours of Friday

La Barceloneta beach in Barcelona was also filled with visitors and locals as things returned to normal following the first major terror attack in Spain for 13 years

La Barceloneta beach in Barcelona was also filled with visitors and locals as things returned to normal following the first major terror attack in Spain for 13 years

At least six of those are now dead; five shot and killed during their attack in Cambrils, and another blown up in an accidental explosion at a bomb-making factory in Alcanar on Wednesday.

Moussa Oukabir, Said Aallaa, Mohamed and Omar Hychami, and Houssaine Abouyaaqoub were all shot by a single police officer in Cambrils. Youssef Aallaa was almost certainly killed in the Alcanar blast.

Abdelbaki Es Satty, the suspected mastermind of the plot, was also potentially killed in the same explosion, though police are still investigating this.

Salah El Karib, the owner of an internet cafe in Ripoll, where most of the jihadis lived, has been arrested. So has Mohamed Aalaa, brother of Cambrils attacker Said, whose car was used in that attack.

Driss Oubakir, brother of Moussa, is also being questioned by police. He handed himself over to authorities on Thursday after it emerged the van used in the Barcelona attack was rented in his name. He says he is innocent.

Also in detention is Mohamed Houli Chemlal, thought to be the group’s bomb-maker, after he was pulled from the rubble of the Alcanar apartment. 

Police say the group were planning a mass-scale atrocity involving three rented vans packed with plastic explosives and 120 butane gas canisters.

But after these were destroyed in the blast, the group were forced to improvise using rudimentary tactics employed in dozens of other attacks around Europe. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk