TOTALLY GEEKED!

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/17/van-crashes-into-crowd-of-people-barcelona-las-ramblas

Up to 13 people are feared dead and dozens have been injured after a van crashed into a crowd of people in central Barcelona, with reports of at least one armed man holed up in a nearby restaurant.

Catalonia’s TV3 reported that 13 people had died and dozens were injured, but these numbers have not been confirmed by Spanish authorities. Catalan police have so far confirmed one death and said 32 people have been injured, 10 of them seriously.

Live Barcelona attack: multiple deaths reported after van hits Las Ramblas crowds – latest updates
Police confirm fatalities and say they are treating incident in Spanish city as terror attack, amid local reports that armed men have entered restaurant
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Spanish police, who are treating the incident as a terrorist attack, said the “massive crash” happened on Las Ramblas in an area of the city popular with tourists.

Television pictures showed a crashed van stopped on top of a Joan Míro mosaic halfway down Las Ramblas. It reportedly entered the wide boulevard where it meets the Plaça de Catalunya, then drove towards the port area, meaning it would have covered more than 500 metres.

The van thought to have been used in the attack.
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The van thought to have been used in the attack. Photograph: Twitter
A photograph released by the public broadcaster RTVE showed three people lying on the ground in the street, apparently being helped by police and others.

A TV image shows emergency staff and members of the public attending the injured.
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A TV image shows emergency staff and members of the public attending the injured. Photograph: Universal News And Sport (Europe)
In a tweet, Catalan police confirmed they were dealing with a terrorist attack: “The terrorist attack protocol has been activated.”

Spanish media reported that the Guardia Civil have identified the suspect thought to have hired the white Fiat van used in the attack. According to those reports, he is understood to be from north Africa but to possess a NIE, the identity document issued to foreigners who are resident in Spain.

There were separate reports that a suspect had been arrested, but it was not clear whether this referred to the same person.

A second van linked to the attack – assumed to have been used as getaway car – has been found in the small town of Vic in Catalonia.

The prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, cancelled his holiday in Galicia, north-west Spain, to return to Madrid. The Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, and the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, also cancelled their holidays and were returning to the city. The Catalan vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, said the regional government would hold an urgent meeting.

Puigdemont has called for “maximum caution” in the wake of the attack. He added that “all the attention” should be on the victims of the attack.

According to early reports, the vehicle sped down the centre of the 1km-long road, which is usually packed with people, until it hit a newspaper kiosk and stopped.


Witnesses spoke of panic and seeing people covered in blood. Several pushchairs could be seen abandoned at the side of the street.

Jordi Lino, who was on a bus going down Las Ramblas, said: “First I saw people running and then the van. There were injured people in the middle of the Ramblas.”

Lourdes Porcar told TV3 she saw the van running people over. “It was going very fast, without caring about who was in its way,” she said.

TV3 said police sources had confirmed to it that one armed man was holed up in a Turkish restaurant near Las Ramblas and the Boqueria market.

But Catalan police said reports of gunfire in the Corte Inglés department store were untrue. They were advising people to follow official sources for updates.

Metro stations and shops close to site of the crash were closed.

The spokeswoman for a chain of 10 restaurants in the area said that about 600 people were stuck inside their establishments waiting for permission from the police to leave.

The Spanish newspaper El País, citing police sources, said the driver of the vehicle fled on foot.

Catalan emergency services said people should stay away from the area around Plaça de Catalunya. Police have also asked people to communicate via social media and messaging instead of phone calls, as mobile telephone coverage is saturated.

Police officers tell members of the public to leave the scene.
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Police officers tell members of the public to leave the scene. Photograph: Manu Fernandez/AP
Mobile phone footage shows panicked, screaming tourists fleeing through the narrow streets beside Las Ramblas.

TV3 said there were unconfirmed reports that a second van was following the first but then drove off.

Las Ramblas, a street of stalls and shops that cuts through the centre of Barcelona, is one of the city’s top tourist destinations. People walk down a wide, pedestrianised path in the centre of the street, but cars can travel on either side.

Spain has so far been spared the kind of extremist violence that has occurred recently in France, Belgium and Germany, but it was hit by what is still Europe’s deadliest jihadi attack in March 2004, when bombs exploded on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people in an attack claimed by al-Qaida-inspired extremists.

The latest crash follows terrorist attacks with vehicles in France, Germany and the UK. Last July, 86 people were killed in Nice when a 19-ton truck mowed down people on the beach promenade. A Christmas market in Berlin was the scene of a similar atrocity in December, when 12 people were killed by a truck packed with steel. While, in London a speeding van hit pedestrians before attackers launched a knife attack in cafes and restaurants at Borough market in June. Eight people died in the attack, while at least 48 were wounded.

Ugh.

And a police officer shot 4 of them! Thank goodness he was able to stop them!

Yeah, it's a "copycat". Sure. The Killings By Truck started in Europe. Sheesh. But, Trump is the only one on the planet actually trying to stop this.