Barcelona and Cambrils: ‘Bigger’ attacks were prepared
The suspects in the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils were planning one or more bigger attacks than those that were carried out, police say.
They said blasts on Wednesday in a town south of Barcelona deprived plotters of bomb material, so they executed simpler attacks using vehicles to ram crowds.
Police are seeking Moussa Oukabir, thought to be 17, and three others.
Oukabir is suspected of carrying out Thursday’s attack on Barcelona’s Ramblas, where 13 people died.
Scores of others were injured as a van driver zig-zagged along the famous tourist street.
Moussa Oukabir, a Spanish citizen from the northern Catalan city of Girona, is suspected of using his brother’s documents to rent the van that mowed down people on the famous boulevard.
Hours later, police killed five suspected jihadists in a second vehicle attack in the town of Cambrils. A woman injured in that attack died later.
Police said the men killed in Cambrils were linked to the Barcelona attack, which the Islamic State (IS) group said it had carried out.
