Spanish police shoot dead Barcelona car attacker

Spanish police on Monday shot dead a man they suspect was the Islamist militant who drove a van into a Barcelona crowd last week, killing 13 people

Younes Abouyaaqoub. Pic/AFP

Spanish police on Monday shot dead a man they suspect was the Islamist militant who drove a van into a Barcelona crowd last week, killing 13 people.

Ending a five-day manhunt, police tracked 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub to a rural area near Barcelona.

They said they shot him after he held up what appeared to be an explosives belt. Police gave few immediate details of the incident in Subirats, saying they had called in a bomb squad to approach the man’s body after gunning him down.

Abouyaaqoub had been on the run since Thursday evening, after he drove at high speed into throngs of people strolling along Barcelona’s most famous avenue, Las Ramblas, in Spain’s worst militant attack in over a decade. Islamic State claimed responsibility and police believe the attack was planned by a dozen accomplices, including a brother and two first cousins of Abouyaaqoub.

15
Death toll in the twin attacks yesterday

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