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Barcelona terrorist attack

whitewave

whitewave

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Feb 29, 2012
Messages
12,375
van drove into people. Getting a link... LE says terrorism.
 
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...pedestrians-barcelona-tourist-area/104682700/

"Barcelona, Spain — A white van jumped the sidewalk Thursday in Barcelona’s historic Las Ramblas district, killing and injuring several people as it plowed into a summer crowd of tourists and residents, police said. The El Pais newspaper said police were treating the crash as a terror attack.

Police cordoned off the broad, popular street, ordering stores and nearby Metro and train stations to close. They asked people to stay away from the area so as not to get in the way of emergency services. A helicopter hovered over the scene.

Quoting unnamed police sources, El Pais said the two perpetrators of the crash were holed up in a bar in Tallers Street. There was no immediate police confirmation of the report.

Catalan police tweeted that “there are mortal victims and injured from the crash” without specifying numbers. The Barcelona-based La Vanguardia newspaper reported at least one dead and 20 injured from the van.


In a photograph on public broadcaster RTVE, three people were lying on the ground in the street of the northern Spanish city Thursday afternoon, apparently being helped by police and others. Other videos showed five people down and recorded people screaming as they fled the scene.

Las Ramblas, a street of stalls and shops that cuts through the center of Barcelona, is one of the city’s top tourist destinations. People walk down a wide, pedestrian path in the center of the street but cars can travel on either side.

Keith Fleming, an American who lives in Barcelona, was watching TV in his building just off Las Ramblas when he heard a noise and went out to his balcony.

“I saw women and children just running and they looked terrified,” he said.

There was a bang, possibly from someone rolling down a store shutter, and more people ran by. Then police arrived and pushed everyone down the street, a full block away. Even people leaning out of doors were being told to go back inside, he said.

He said police are there with their guns drawn and riot police are at the end of his block. He said his street is now deserted.

“It’s just kind of a tense situation,” Fleming said. “Clearly people were scared.”

Cars, trucks and vans have been the weapon of choice in multiple extremist attacks in Europe in the last year.

The most deadly was the driver of a tractor-trailer who targeted Bastille Day revelers in the southern French city of Nice in July 2016, killing 86 people. In December 2016, 12 people died after a driver used a hijacked trick to drive into a Christmas market in Berlin.

There have been multiple attacks this year in London, where a man in a rented SUV plowed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing four people before he ran onto the grounds of Parliament and stabbed an unarmed police officer to death in March.

Four other men drove onto the sidewalk of London Bridge, unleashing a rampage with knives that killed eight people in June. Another man also drove into pedestrians leaving a London mosque later in June."
 
My heart goes out to the people of Spain.:cry:

I'm so tired of terrorist attacks...and it looks like there will be no end to them.:(sad
 
I was outraged to hear that Trump was being kept informed because "we know from his campaign that he takes an interest in terrorism".

Really?

When it's in Europe?

AGBF
 
whitewave said:
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...pedestrians-barcelona-tourist-area/104682700/

Catalan police tweeted that “there are mortal victims and injured from the crash” without specifying numbers. The Barcelona-based La Vanguardia newspaper reported at least one dead and 20 injured from the van.
Click to expand...

I have to admit that when I heard "Spain" my first thought was that it might be Basque separatists or people who wanted Catalan independence. Those issues keep coming up in Spain.

AGBF
 
whitewave said:
Live updates: http://news.sky.com/story/live-van-ploughs-into-crowd-in-barcelona-10992730

There may or may not be a hostage situation.
Click to expand...

Whatever the case, it was not a simple "hit and run". Thank you for the updates, whitewave. When I was first following the story on television, the commentators were warning people to be safe, not to assume that there was only one attack. And, indeed, they were right. There was obviously much more going on. It would have been wise for anyone not hit in the initial van attack to take shelter immediately.

Thank you again for all your postings.

Deb
 
I find following written material less overwhelming than following on TV. Too much can be too much, you know?
 
whitewave said:
I find following written material less overwhelming than following on TV. Too much can be too much, you know?
Click to expand...

Hi, again, whitewave!

I cannot multi-task. I am not of the generation that grew up muti-tasking and I also do not have the temperament for it.

It is not overwhelming for me to follow TV, because when I follow TV, it is all that I do! I lie on my bed and watch television on a huge screen. If my daughter tries to speak to me, I tell her that she cannot. If the phone rings, I decide whether I want to mute the television and answer it or ignore the call. I do not have a laptop, so the computer is not a possibility. It's all or nothing!

Deb, the old-fashioned :wavey:
 
My husband is in Spain right now, and was in Barcelona yesterday. I messaged him anyway, even though I could clearly see his location from my phone. This is twice now he's been near incidents like this but just a day or a few hours from the scene.
 
lyra said:
My husband is in Spain right now, and was in Barcelona yesterday. I messaged him anyway, even though I could clearly see his location from my phone. This is twice now he's been near incidents like this but just a day or a few hours from the scene.
Click to expand...

Wow, so very nervewracking...!!!
 
lyra said:
My husband is in Spain right now, and was in Barcelona yesterday. I messaged him anyway, even though I could clearly see his location from my phone. This is twice now he's been near incidents like this but just a day or a few hours from the scene.
Click to expand...

I'm glad he is OK, lyra.

Deb :wavey:
 
This is sad news :( but no reason not to visit Europe - that's exactly what 'they' want, so we mustn't let them think they are winning.

re: the taking shelter thing, I believe hiding has been the historical recommendation, but since these sort of (basically suicide) attacks have started, running away seems to be the better/recommended option - the logic being you are only worth something to the attackers as a dead person, they don't care about hostages or escaping the scene so the threat won't go away until they themselves have been killed.
 
OoohShiny said:
This is sad news :( but no reason not to visit Europe - that's exactly what 'they' want, so we mustn't let them think they are winning.

re: the taking shelter thing, I believe hiding has been the historical recommendation, but since these sort of (basically suicide) attacks have started, running away seems to be the better/recommended option - the logic being you are only worth something to the attackers as a dead person, they don't care about hostages or escaping the scene so the threat won't go away until they themselves have been killed.
Click to expand...

This is what my cousin and I (sort of) joke about why we need to get in shape-- to outrun terrorist attacks.
 
:(2
Oh wow, my thoughts are with the victims in spain and their families tonight.
 
Lyra I'm glad your husband is safe and well, I hope that all the other PSers from around the world and their families are safe as a lot of tourists were killed in the attack. Thoughts go out to the families of the killed and injured.
 
I'm worried that there was a second attack. He is south of the latest attack. Sheesh it's stressful and depressing. It's hard to process all the hate going on, isn't it? No place is immune right now.
 
Lyra, I'm so glad your husband is safe. Yes, it's very hard to process all the hate going on.
 
AGBF said:
I have to admit that when I heard "Spain" my first thought was that it might be Basque separatists or people who wanted Catalan independence. Those issues keep coming up in Spain.
Click to expand...

I find it ironic that while the Catalan separatists had no hand in this attack that, nonetheless, this attack is coming back to exacerbate the problem of the Catalan desire for independence and Spanish resistance to that wealthy area breaking off from the rest of Spain.

Excerpt from an article in "The New York Times":

"BARCELONA, Spain — The attacks in and near Barcelona initially led rival Spanish and Catalan politicians to present an image of solidarity in the face of terrorism.

King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy attended solemn commemorations in Barcelona for victims. Mr. Rajoy even held a news conference with Carles Puigdemont, the Catalan leader, whom he had not met officially since April of last year.

But with the end of the hunt for the assailants this week, the tensions that had been masked by the facade of unity are now threatening to boil over, as the political clock ticks toward a Catalan independence referendum scheduled for Oct. 1. Mr. Rajoy has threatened to block that vote with the help of Spanish courts.

The attacks that killed 15 people last week 'occurred at the worst moment of the relationship between Catalan and Spanish politicians, and the only thing this has done is to add more tensions below the surface,' said Ramon Perelló, the head of Península, a Barcelona-based publisher.

The attacks have already helped expose the gaps between the Catalan regional and Spanish national governments."
 
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