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Catalan police ID Barcelona van attack driver

Autonomous government says death toll from terror attacks has risen to 15

21.08.2017 - Update : 22.08.2017
Catalan police ID Barcelona van attack driver FILE PHOTO

ISTANBUL

Police in Catalonia said on Monday they had identified the male responsible for killing at least 13 people in a vehicle attack in Barcelona last week.

Catalan police issued a tweet in which said they had identified the driver, but gave no further details.

However, media reports have claimed that 22-year-old Moroccan-born Younes Abouyaaqoub was the man responsible for killing 13 people and injuring more than 100 others by driving a white van into crowds of tourists and locals in a central Barcelona pedestrian area.

Images published by Spanish daily El Pais purport to show CCTV stills of Abouyaaqoub walking away from the scene of the carnage.

The Catalan government has also described Abouyaaqoub as the main suspect, believed to have been behind the wheel of the van.

A Catalan official has said the manhunt for alleged attacker has now been widened to cover Europe.

New victim

On Monday, the Catalan government said a man reportedly stabbed in a hijacking around 90 minutes after the Barcelona attack had died, raising the death toll from the Barcelona and Cambrils incidents to 15.

The man was stabbed and his vehicle taken in the town of Sant Just Desvern, near Barcelona.

The government also said out of 126 victims initially admitted to hospital, 76 had been discharged. Thirty-four nationalities were caught up in the spate of violence.

Josep Lluis Trapero, chief of the Catalan regional police, told a news conference Sunday that the twin terror attacks were the result of a six-month preparation period.

The terror cell that carried two attacks in Catalonia this past week were in possession of 120 gas canisters, a sign that it was planning a bigger attack, said Spanish police on Sunday.

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