Barcelona attack – five terrorists wearing fake suicide belts shot dead in Cambrils after injuring seven in SECOND car ramming attack just hours after 13 are massacred in Las Ramblas
FIVE jihadists wearing suicide belts were shot dead and one person killed in a second car ramming terror attack in Spain - just hours after 13 people were killed in Barcelona.
The terrorists ploughed into a crowd of innocents in an Audi before being blasted by cops when they flipped their car in the resort town of Cambrils early this morning.
Their suicide belts were later detonated by the bomb squad but have since been found to be fakes in chilling echoes of the London Bridge terror attackers who also wore dummy vests.
Two of the seven injured are said to be in a "serious" condition, according to local authorities. One of the wounded is a police officer, but he is not believed to be seriously hurt.
One person has been confirmed dead in the attack.
Catalan police chief today confirmed that ONE hero cop took down four of the terrorists.
A fifth one, reportedly "drugged up", fled the scene despite being wounded.
Armed officers who eventually needed 15 bullets to kill him.
Catalan police chief Josep Luis Trapero confirmed a single officer, who was meant to be on holiday, killed four of the terrorists and said: "To kill four people, even if you are a professional, is not easy to digest."
He added that the officer was now receiving counselling.
El Pais report that the driver of the car that mowed through crowds of tourists on Barcelona's most famous avenue yesterday afternoon was among the five dead.
A seven-year-old Australian boy is feared to be among the victims of the horror in Las Ramblas, while an Irish family were wounded in the attack.
Both atrocities are being linked by police and four people have been arrested across Spain as sources claim 12 people were involved in a terror cell plotting butane gas canister attacks.
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Police believe the terror network was based in Alcanar - 120 miles from Barcelona - where a house understood to have been used as a bomb making factory exploded on Wednesday.
A man was also shot dead as he rammed officers at a roadblock set up to snare the terrorists, but officials said the incident wasn't linked to the terror attacks.
The attack in the coastal town of Cambrils - located around 68 miles south of Barcelona - began at around 1am when the suspects rammed an Audi A3 into pedestrians.
Terrified witnesses jumped on the beach for safety during the rampage as the attackers - wearing fake suicide belts - flipped the car before being shot dead by police.
Their bodies were left scattered on the beach before being removed by authorities this morning.
Panic-stricken bystanders ducked behind concrete walls for cover as gunshots rang out across the quiet town.
Brit Fitzroy Davis witnessed the horror as he celebrated a night out with pals in popular tourist destination Cambrils.
He told the BBC: "We were sitting at the bar and these girls ran in and some people started running past us. One of our friends looked down the street and he says: ‘Run.’
"The next thing is we see this guy coming running at us and someone shouted: ‘Call the police, call the police.’
"He was running away at first then he turned round and he came running back up the street and he stopped and that is when the police car came and then they were shouting at him.
"And then he was walking around in a circle and then they shot him.
"He fell to the ground and he came back up and he stepped over the fence and he was smiling at them.
"And he came walking to the police and he was taunting them sort of thing, and they shot him again.
"And that was it and then he went down."
Joan Marc Serra Salinas, a 21-year-old waiter, said he heard gunshots "and shouting. And more shouting. I jumped onto the beach and didn't move".
Catalan emergency services said on Twitter that people in Cambrils, which is on the coast, should "stay home, stay safe."
The National Police twitter feed said: "There is currently a police operation in #Cambrils before a possible terrorist attack.
"Avoid being on the street! Stay at home."
Cambrils is a seaside town south of Barcelona and is popular with British tourists and expats.
- WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR
- At 5pm on Thursday, a white Fiat van ploughed into a crowd in tourist hotspot Las Ramblas in Barcelona
- At least 13 people were killed and 130 more injured as the driver mowed down innocents along a 500m stretch of the packed pedestrian area
- The driver then fled the carnage on foot and is still believed to be on the run
- Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said the van attack was a result of 'jihadist terrorism' and ISIS has since claimed responsibility
- At least four men have been arrested in connection with the attack including Driss Oukabir - a 28-year-old Moroccan who is believed to have rented the van.His brother Moussa Oukabir, 17, stole his ID
- Victims are from 34 countries. A seven-year-old British boy is feared to be among the victims as Theresa May says she is "urgently" looking into reports
- Eight hours later, one person was killed and seven injured after five terrorists carry out second terror attack in Cambrils - 68 miles from Barcelona
- Jihadists wearing fake suicide vests rammed an Audi A3 into pedestrians and were shot dead by police when the car flipped
- Officials are linking the attacks with an explosion that killed one person at a house 124 miles away from Las Ramblas on Wednesday
Meanwhile, police are still hunting the driver of a van that mowed through crowds of tourists in Las Ramblas yesterday afternoon, killing at least 13 people.
The rampaging vehicle zigzagged through the tourist hotspot - mowing down innocent people as terrified families ran for their lives.
Chilling footage and pictures from the scene show bodies scattered around the blood-splattered ground as armed cops quickly responded to the emergency.
The van involved in the deadly Las Ramblas attack was rented by a man named as Driss Oukabir.
According to local media, Oukabir is a Spanish national of North African descent.
Oukabir was detained after handing himself into a police station in Ripoll, in northern Catalonia.
The 28-year-old told investigating officers his brother Moussa Oukabir, 17, stole his ID.
He is one of four people arrested - three Moroccans and one Spaniard - following the horror -but police say the group have no known backgrounds in terrorism.
Police sources have now said baby-faced Moussa is being hunted as the suspected driver, according to ABC Catalonia.
The ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq has said that “soldiers” of the brainwashed death cult carried out the attack.
The propaganda outlet said via messaging app Telegram: "The executors of the Barcelona attack were soldiers of the Islamic State.”
Police are now trying to close in on the terror network after sources said there were 12 people involved who may have been planning a deadly attack using butane gas canisters.
It comes as a huge explosion at a house in a town outside Barcelona on Wednesday was linked to the Las Ramblas terror rampage by police.
TERROR TOWN - LINK BETWEEN 9/11 MASTERMIND AND CAMBRILS
Cambrils - the location of the second terror attack - was chillingly the meeting point for the mastermind of the 9/11 atrocity.
Egyptian-born Mohamed Atta, 33, the pilot of the first airliner the terrorists crashed into the World Trade Centre, drove to the town from Madrid after picking up al-Qaeda plotter Ramzi bin al-Shibh.
The pair stayed in a local hotel for the night before moving on to an unknown location where they are believed to have spent several days planning the 9/11 attack.
Bin al-Shibh was originally handpicked by Osama bin Laden to be one of the September 11 hijackers 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 find flight schools for the hijackers in the US and arrange financial transactions in support of the massacre.
He met Atta, who studied in Hamburg, Germany, in the 1990s and learned to fly in Florida, at Reus airport near Tarragona in July 2001 and they drove together to Cambrils.
Bin al-Shibh, a Yemeni, was arrested in 2002 in Pakistan and taken to Guantanamo Bay where he is being held by the US authorities, accused of being a "key facilitator" for the September 11 attacks.
One person died and seven others were injured, one of them seriously, in the blast at a home in the town of Alcanar.
Authorities found about 20 butane and propane gas bottles at the scene and now believe the home may have been used as a bomb making factory.
A second van linked to the Barcelona attack was also found in the town of Vic in Catalonia at 6.30pm but a third is still being hunted.
To add to the chaos, Catalan police shot and killed a man who was in a car that hit two cops at a traffic blockade in the town of Sant Just Desvern, which is outside of Barcelona, at around 7.30pm.
But they later said the man who was gunned down was not involved in the Las Ramblas massacre.
Brave Catalionians returned to normality in Barcelona today in a defiant stand against last night's terror attack.
Tourists flooded the promenade and shops as locals read newspapers in cafes as a heavy police presence was seen.
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