Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Death toll rising from Barcelona attack

  • Spanish special police in training exercise. Manhunt for Las Ramblas driver continued on Friday (Photo: PROContando Estrelas)

The death toll from the terrorist attacks in Spain is likely to rise as 15 people remained in critical condition on Friday (18 August).

Thirteen people died immediately and more than 100 were injured earlier on Thursday afternoon when a man drove a van onto the pavement at high speed in Las Ramblas, a popular tourist destination in the city of Barcelona.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Eleven million people a year visit Barcelona (Photo: Derek Winterburn)

The dead include a three-year old girl. A six-year old girl is one of those still fighting for her life.

The driver, who ran away from the scene on foot, remained at large on Friday and people were advised to stay indoors amid a police hunt.

One other person is also in a critical condition and five others were injured in a follow-up attack in which a car rammed pedestrians in Cambrils, a small town near Barcelona, shortly before midnight on Thursday.

Police shot dead five men involved in that attack, who were said to have been carrying suicide bombs.

Two other men were also killed in separate incidents that may have been linked to the Barcelona and Cambrils attacks.

One of them was found dead from stab wounds in the passenger seat of a car in Barcelona on Thursday.

The second one was killed in an explosion in a house in Alcanar, 200km from Barcelona, on Wednesday, in what was a suspected bomb-making accident.

Spanish leader Mariano Rajoy told an emergency news conference on Thursday that the incidents were a “jihadist attack”.

The Amaq news agency, a mouthpiece for Islamic State (IS), a jihadist group based in Syria, said: “The perpetrators of the Barcelona attack are soldiers of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting coalition states”.

The “coalition” is a US-led group of Western and Arabic states that are carrying out anti-IS air strikes in Iraq and Syria.

Worldwide shock

The Catalan government said the dead and injured came from 24 different countries.

They include 26 French people, as well as Belgians, Dutch tourists, Germans, Greeks, Hungarians, Irish people, Italians, Romanians, and Spanish nationals.

They also include people from Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Cuba, Macedonia, Peru, and Venezuela.

Spain’s Rajoy said: “We are united in our mourning and in our determination to overcome those who want to rob us of our values and our way of life”.

Carles Puigdment, the leader of the Catalan region that is home to Barcelona, said: “Catalonia will rise to the occasion to defend peace and freedom. Democracy will break barbarism”.

Leaders, celebrities, and CEOs from around the world also issued statements of condolence on Thursday.

"All my thoughts and France's solidarity to the victims,” French president Emmanuel Macron said.

British prime minister Theresa May said: “The UK stands with Spain against terror”.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission chief, added: “I hold a special thought for the heroic people who responded by running towards danger to help others and to the security forces who are working to keep the population safe”.

Pig tweet

Donald Trump, the US leader, caused controversy by tweeting: “Study what General Pershing of the United States did to terrorists”.

Pershing was a US general who purportedly dipped bullets in pig’s blood before executing Islamist fighters. Pigs are taboo in Islam.

The Islamic Commission of Spain voiced “emphatic condemnation and repulsion” to the Barcelona attack and said it hoped “that those responsible for these attacks can be detained and brought to justice as soon as possible”.

Vehicles were also used to ram people in separate attacks in London, Stockholm, Berlin, and in Nice, France, in the past 13 months.

The Nice attack in July 2016, the deadliest one, killed 86 people and injured 458.

EU to crack down on art-funded terrorism

The EU executive has presented measures to crack down on the traffic of cultural goods as part of an effort to cut funding to terrorist groups.

Opinion

Building a Europe more resilient to terrorism

One year to the day since the terror attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, the commissioner for home affairs spells out what action the EU is taking now to protect against further attacks.

EU Parliament set to sue EU Commission over Hungary funds

The European Parliament will likely take the European Commission to court for unblocking more than €10bn in funds for Hungary last December. A final nod of approval is still needed by European Parliament president, Roberta Metsola.

EU Commission clears Poland's access to up to €137bn EU funds

The European Commission has legally paved the way for Poland to access up to €137bn EU funds, following Donald Tusk's government's efforts to strengthen the independence of their judiciary and restore the rule of law in the country.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Opinion

I'll be honest — Moldova's judicial system isn't fit for EU

To state a plain truth: at present, Moldova does not have a justice system worthy of a EU member state; it is riven with corruption and lax and inconsistent standards, despite previous attempts at reform, writes Moldova's former justice minister.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us