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Live Feed: Van Plows Into Barcelona Crowd Killing Two; Armed Terrorists Take Hostages After Shootout

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Update 1: According to Reuters, two armed men have entered a restaurant after the van crash and have taken hostages, while El Periodico tweets that there is an active shootout taking place the area in what the Barclona police now say is considered a "terrorist attack."

Reuters also adds that at least two have been killed in the van crash while El Mundo adds that more than 20 people have been injured. Pictures from the scene of the crash show emergency services and civilians attending to at least two people on the ground. One twitter video post shows bodies strewn across the pavement for at least 100 metres of the famous street.

According to El Pais the perpetrator of the van attack is still on the run.

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A "massive crash" has taken place in Barcelona, where a white van has ploughed into a crowd of "dozens of people" in the city's center, at the main Rambla de Catalunya promenade, Spain's La Vanguardia newspaper reports.  Catalan emergency services said people should not go to the area around Placa Catalunya.

El Pais newspaper said the driver of the vehicle had fled on foot after mowing down dozens of people. While full details of the incident were not immediately clear, since July 2016 vehicles have been used to ram into crowds in a series of militant attacks across Europe, killing well over 100 people in Nice, Berlin, London and Stockholm. In recent weeks, threatening graffiti against tourists has appeared in Barcelona, which draws at least 11 million visitors a year.

In one video released under the slogan "tourism kills neighbourhoods", several hooded individuals stopped a tourist bus in Barcelona, slashed the tyres and spray-painted the windscreen.

Imagen aérea del lugar del atropello en les Rambles de Barcelona

From Reuters:

  • BARCELONA POLICE CONFIRM THAT A "MASSIVE CRASH" FROM A VAN HAS OCCURRED IN THE CITY CENTRE
  • BARCELONA POLICE SAY ON TWITTER THERE ARE SEVERAL INJURED FROM VAN CRASH IN CITY CENTRE
  • CATALAN EMERGENCY SERVICES SAY ON TWITTER THERE IS AN INCIDENT ON PLACA CATALUNYA, PEOPLE SHOULD AVOID GOING TO AREA

As Vanguardia adds citing several sources, the driver appears to have run over a dozen people. The local police reported that there are "several injured", without giving further details. Local emergency services say that police forces have evacuated the area, while several ambulances are attending to the injured.

 

Developing

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Europe