The terror attack in Barcelona has not prevented locals and tourists from taking to the streets and showing their solidarity. Anna Gumbau reports from the Catalonian capital.

“Barcelona is not scared,” Víctor Garcia, a local from Barcelona, says the morning after the terror attack in the city, when a van drove through Las Ramblas and killed 14 people and wounded more than a hundred others.

Las Ramblas is the longest boulevard and the busiest pedestrian street in the city. It is regularly filled with tourists and locals who work in the city center. There are several iconic newsstands located along the street. Alberto Garcia, who works at one of these kiosks, noted that things were less busy than usual. He was, however, hopeful that this would solely “be an immediate consequence of the attack,” and that Las Ramblas would regain its usual crowds in the upcoming days.

However, many locals and shop owners admitted being surprised by how many people were roaming around the streets in the city. “We are shocked and saddened, but we are not really surprised about the attacks,” Víctor told me. Amid the wave of terror attacks in Europe in the past two years, citizens in Barcelona were aware that the city would be hit by one at some point – the question was only when it would happen. “We cannot prevent [such an attack], so we must prevail,” Antoni, a local who works at a bank near Las Ramblas, told DW.

Acts of solidarity

By morning after the attack, once the investigation and operations were over, the police removed the perimeter they had erected around Las Ramblas. At 11 a.m., the streets were mostly crowded; the majority of shops, department stores and local businesses were open as usual, and tourists rambled around Barcelona’s most crowded boulevard again.

Clara and Lorenzo, two travelers from Italy, were planning on visiting Las Ramblas the evening of the attack, until a call from a relative warned them about the situation. “Our hotel was located in one of the streets parallel to Las Ramblas and it was impossible for us to get in there at first. We had to walk for nearly an hour before we could reach it,” they say. They were “in shock” the night before, but nevertheless decided to take a walk around Las Ramblas the morning after in spite of the attack.

On Thursday night, many tourists were unable to get back to Las Ramblas and reach the hotels they were staying in. However, the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, praised the solidarity shown by citizens, as hundreds of locals offered shelter at their houses and rushed to the nearest hospitals to give blood for the wounded, while taxi drivers gave rides for free and translators voluntarily acted as interpreters between the hospital personnel and tourists who were wounded.