The police force for Spain’s Catalonia region says its troopers shot and killed four suspects and wounded a fifth in a resort town south of Barcelona to “respond to a terrorist attack.” This happened in a shootout 70 miles from Barcelona in an operation linked to yesterday’s massacre, which claimed 13 lives and left more than 100 injured after a van mowed down pedestrians.
The confrontation came about eight hours after a van swerved through a pedestrian walkway in a popular destination in downtown Barcelona.
Shocking video footage shows bodies strewn across the ground after armed officers gunned down the terrorists who had explosives strapped around their waists.
Gunshots could be heard and police officers were seen running down a street in Cambrils, to the south of the Catalan city, shortly after midnight.
Seven innocent people – including an officer – were injured and witnesses have said the shooting happened close to a taxi rank in the coastal town.
Police said they are treating the latest incident as terror.
This latest incident comes just hours after a van ploughed into pedestrians in Barcelona.
Reports say the group had attempted to carry out a similar attack to that on Las Ramblas by driving a van at pedestrians but their vehicle overturned and they were shot by officers.
Police this morning confirmed they had ‘shot the perpetrators’ and urged locals to ‘avoid going out’ and to ‘stay home’.
The regional police said on Twitter early Friday that troopers fired on the five suspects in Cambrils, a seaside town about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Barcelona.
The regional police said in another tweet that they are investigating whether the Cambrils suspects were wearing explosive vests. Its officers planned to carry out several controlled explosions.
The force says it is working on the theory that the Cambrils suspects were linked to the Barcelona attack, as well as to a Wednesday night explosion in the town of Alcanar in which one person was killed.
Update: The fifth has been confirmed dead by thr Police.
Source: Daily Mail