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Van Driver in Barcelona Attack Is Killed by Police Van Driver in Barcelona Attack Is Killed by Police
(about 3 hours later)
SUBIRATS, Spain — The fugitive believed to have driven the van in last week’s terrorist attacks in Spain was shot dead by the police on Monday in a village outside Barcelona after a Europeanwide dragnet, the police announced. SUBIRATS, Spain — The woman who spotted him on Monday afternoon said the young man was wearing unusually bulky clothes for a hot summer day. On a second look, she told the police when she phoned in the tip, she had “no doubt” he was the fugitive suspected of driving the van in last week’s terrorist attack in Barcelona.
The fugitive, Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, used a van to mow down a crowd on Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s central boulevard, last Thursday, killing 13 people, according to the police. He then stole a car, killed its driver and made his getaway with the driver’s body still inside. Two police officers in the area closed in and cornered the suspect, Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, along a road that winds its way up through this wine region west of the city.
A manhunt stretching across Europe began, and France, Italy and other countries tightened security and border controls amid widespread speculation that Mr. Abouyaaqoub might have fled Spain. Over the weekend, the authorities had said they could not be certain that he was still on Spanish soil. As soon as they did, he opened his jacket to reveal what looked like a suicide belt — which turned out to be fake — and shouted, “Allah is great.” The officers shot him dead.
But at 4:10 p.m. Monday, attention quickly turned to Subirats, a collection of villages about 20 miles west of Barcelona. The town was placed on lockdown as the authorities announced that a man wearing an explosive belt had been “shot down.” Mr. Abouyaaqoub’s killing in the Catalan countryside put an end to a four-day, Europeanwide search for the only unaccounted member of a 12-person terrorist cell that carried out the deadly attacks in Barcelona and a seaside resort last week, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more.
The identity of the suspect was not clear for about two hours; a robot, operated by a police bomb squad, was going through the explosive device to ensure that there was no danger. But at 6:20 p.m., the police announced that the man who had been shot was indeed Mr. Abouyaaqoub. The attacks were Spain’s deadliest terrorist assault since 2004, when terrorists bombed commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people.
Residents of Subirats appeared frightened but unharmed. Mr. Abouyaaqoub is suspected of being behind the wheel of the van that mowed down a crowd on Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s central boulevard, on Thursday. He escaped on foot through the city’s most famous food market, stole a car in the city’s university district, killed the owner with a knife and put the body in the back seat.
“They told us to keep inside, to be ready for anything,” Pere Pons, the mayor of Subirats, told Catalan radio. “A little while ago the police called us to stay in our houses. To keep calm, to wait for more police to arrive.” He then forced his way through a police checkpoint to reach the outskirts of Barcelona, where he abandoned the car with its owner’s body inside.
He added: “The entire town is surrounded by police.” Maj. Josep Lluís Trapero, the police chief in the Catalonia region, described at a news conference on Monday how Mr. Abouyaaqoub had been finally tracked down and killed.
The police operation was continuing, however, amid reports that the fugitive may have had an accomplice during his flight and that the police were inspecting an abandoned van. The authorities in Sant Sadurní, another town west of Barcelona, issued a message on Twitter warning residents of a police intervention and urging them to remain calm. Major Trapero said the investigation was continuing, including the search for possible links between last week’s assailants and other extremists overseas. But, he said, the police were not looking for a specific accomplice who might have helped Mr. Abouyaaqoub avoid a police dragnet over the last four days.
The death toll from the attacks rose to 15 on Monday. In addition to the 13 people killed in the van attack in Barcelona, a 14th person died hours later in a related attack in the town of Cambrils, and the police on Monday announced a 15th victim: the driver of the car that Mr. Abouyaaqoub stole and used to make his escape. “We have accounted for 12 people in total, who are the ones we have always mentioned,” Major Trapero said. “It’s quite probable that he moved alone around this area.”
The attacks were Spain’s deadliest terrorist assault since 2004, when terrorists bombed commuter trains in Madrid, killing 192 people. Still, villagers suggested that Mr. Abouyaaqoub might have been using the village near the site where he was killed as a hide-out in the months before the attacks.
Also on Monday, the authorities said that an imam believed to have inspired the twin attacks had almost certainly died on Wednesday when a house that the terrorists used as a bomb factory blew up — an event that appears to have precipitated the attacks. When the police released Mr. Abouyaaqoub’s picture on Friday, “I thought he looks familiar, I mean his face,” said Roger Quenal, an 18-year-old student. “I think I saw him two months ago here.”
The imam, Abdelbaki Essati, preached in the town of Ripoll, home to many of the members of the terrorist cell, which the authorities say included at least 12 people. Mr. Quenal’s father, Edward, also thought he had seen Mr. Abouyaaqoub in the neighborhood before the attacks.
Investigators believe the planning for the plot may have begun not long after Mr. Essati’s arrival, a year ago, at the second of two mosques where he worked in Ripoll. Even as the manhunt ended on Monday, several questions remained unanswered, in particular the role of an imam who is believed to have inspired the attacks last week.
The remains of two people were found at the house where the explosion took place, in the town of Alcanar, south of Barcelona. The police confirmed on Monday that the imam, Abdelbaki Essati, was one of the two people who died when a house in a small seaside town south of Barcelona that the group had used as a bomb factory blew up.
Maj. Josep Lluís Trapero, the police chief in the Catalonia region, of which Barcelona is the capital, said at a news conference on Monday that the police had “solid indications” that Mr. Essati was one of them, although they were awaiting the results of DNA tests. The other is yet to be positively identified. The imam preached in the town of Ripoll, home to many of the members of the terrorist cell. Investigators believe the planning for the plot might have begun not long after Mr. Essati’s arrival, a year ago, at the second of two mosques where he worked in Ripoll.
The police also said on Monday that they were certain that Mr. Abouyaaqoub was the driver of the van. The authorities raised the death toll from the attacks to 15 on Monday: 13 killed in the van attack in Barcelona, a 14th person who died hours later in a related attack in the town of Cambrils and the driver of the car that Mr. Abouyaaqoub used to make his escape.
They released surveillance camera images of Mr. Abouyaaqoub, wearing a striped polo shirt, and gave details about how he managed to escape from downtown Barcelona. “We believe he was the only one in the van and driving it,” Major Trapero said. Two of the 15 were children, including a 7-year-old boy who had Australian and British citizenship. Six victims were Spanish, including one who also held an Argentine passport. Three were Italian, two were Portuguese, one was Belgian, one was American and one was Canadian, the authorities said.
Mr. Abouyaaqoub fled on foot from Las Ramblas, the police said, and crossed another popular tourist destination, La Boqueria, a busy food market. He then spotted a stationary car in the city’s university district, killed the owner and put the body on the back seat. Then he forced his way through a police check point. Fifty of the injured victims remained in hospitals on Monday, down from the 126 who were taken to a hospital immediately after the attacks. Twelve were in critical condition.
The driver, Pau Pérez, was found stabbed to death in his vehicle on the outskirts of Barcelona. Earlier on Monday, Major Trapero, the Catalan police chief, said the investigation had gained an international dimension, implying that other countries’ police and intelligence agencies were now involved, but he did not provide details.
Two of the 15 people killed were children, including a 7-year-old who had Australian and British citizenship. Six victims were Spanish, including one who also held an Argentine passport. Three were Italians, two were Portuguese, one Belgian, one American and one Canadian, the authorities said. He also would not comment on reports that the imam had longstanding ties to extremists and had spent time overseas, including in Belgium early last year, shortly before terrorists attacked the airport and subway in Brussels. The imam spent time in prison in Spain on drug-related charges, but had no record of terrorism-related activities.
Fifty of the victims remained in hospitals on Monday, 12 of them in critical condition, down from the 126 who were taken to the hospital immediately after the attacks. Major Trapero defended the level of police surveillance before the attacks. The country has avoided major acts of jihadist terrorism since the Madrid assault, even as the Islamic State and other extremists struck other cities across Europe.
The police chief said that the investigation had gained an international dimension, implying that other countries’ police and intelligence agencies were now involved, but did not provide details. Major Trapero said that it would be “playing dirty” to accuse the police of lapses and that the police had never received information that would have justified acting against members of the cell.
He also would not comment on reports that the imam had longstanding ties to extremists and had spent time overseas, including in Belgium early last year, shortly before terrorists attacked the airport and subway in Brussels. The imam spent time in prison in Spain on drug-related charges, but had no record for terrorism-related activities. Asked why nobody had raised the alarm in Alcanar, the town south of Barcelona where terrorists stored over 100 gas cylinders in their bomb-making house, Major Trapero said, “We have to be cautious not to criminalize the ones who didn’t see or act.”
Major Trapero defended the level of police surveillance ahead of the attacks.
The country has avoided major acts of jihadist terrorism since the Brussels attack, even as the Islamic State and other extremists struck other cities across Europe.
Major Trapero said that it would be “playing dirty” to accuse the police of lapses, and that the police had never received information that would have justified acting against members of the cell.
Asked why nobody had raised the alarm in Alcanar, as terrorists stored over 100 gas cylinders in their bomb-making house, Major Trapero said: “We have to be cautious not to criminalize the ones who didn’t see or act.”
Even with Mr. Abouyaaqoub on the run, Spain kept its level of terrorism alert on Monday at four, on a scale from one to five.
At a news conference in Madrid, Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido praised the “fluid” cooperation between the authorities in Barcelona and Madrid since the attacks. Mr. Zoido urged citizens to join a march next Saturday in Barcelona to condemn terrorism. “We all make ours the suffering of Barcelona,” he said.