Shootout in town of Cambrils leaves 5 suspects dead; 6 civilians and 1 police officer hurt

The latest:

• 13 dead, 100 injured in Barcelona van attack; victims inlcude 24 nationalities 
• 2 suspects arrested in towns of Ripoll and Alcanar, neither believed to be the driver
• 2nd attack in Cambrils; 5 attackers killed in shootout with police
• House explosion in Alcanar Wednesday linked to Cambrils and Barcelona attacks

The police force for Spain’s Catalonia region said its troopers shot dead five suspected perpetrators in a “terrorist attack” in the town of Cambrils, a resort town about 120 kilometres southwest of Barcelona on the coast of the Mediterranean in northeastern Spain.

Police said the Cambrils attack was linked to Thursday’s Barcelona van attack that left 13 people dead and more than 100 injured.

They said the attackers were carrying bomb belts that were detonated by a police bomb squad.

Police have not provided any details on how the Cambrils attack was carried out, but media reports said a car crashed into a police vehicle and nearby civilians and police shot the attackers, one of whom was brandishing a knife. A police officer and five civilians were injured, and two of those injured were in serious condition.

The Catalan regional government said citizens from 24 countries were among the people killed or injured in the Barcelona van attack. Global Affairs Canada said no Canadians were among the dead or injured.

Spanish authorities said one Belgian citizen is among the dead.

The injured include a female citizen of Greece, three Australian citizens, two Taiwanese and one Chinese citizen from Hong Kong.

Police are working on the theory that the Cambrils and Barcelona attacks are connected, as well as a Wednesday night explosion in the town of Alcanar, 90 km southwest of Cambrils, that killed one person.

ISIS claims responsibility for Barcelona attack

Earlier Thursday, a van veered onto a sidewalk and barrelled down a busy pedestrian zone in Barcelona’s picturesque Las Ramblas district, swerving from side to side as it mowed down tourists and residents and turned the popular European vacation promenade into a bloody killing zone.

Victims were left sprawled in the street, spattered with blood or crippled by broken limbs. Others fled in panic, screaming or carrying young children in their arms.

“It was clearly a terror attack, intended to kill as many people as possible,” Josep Lluis Trapero, a senior police official, told a news conference late Thursday. The number of casualties was expected to rise.

Trapero, head of the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalonian police force, said two people were in custody in connection with the van attack — a Moroccan and a Spanish national from Melilla, a Spanish enclave in North Africa — but that neither of them was believed to be the driver of the van.