Barcelona Terror Attack: Crowds Gather For Poignant Minute Of Silence Following Attacks

• 14 people killed and over a hundred injured in Barcelona and Cambrils
• Van driver could have been shot dead during separate Cambrils attack
• Moussa Oukabir, 18, is suspected of being the driver. 4 have been arrested
• British dual-nationality child, 7, is believed to be among the missing
• Foreign Office says a ‘small number’ of Britons were injured in Barcelona
• Victims from 24 different countries, including France, Germany and Australia

BARCELONA - A sombre minute-long silence at Barcelona’s Las Ramblas gave way to spontaneous applause on Friday, as crowds of tourists and locals joined Spanish leaders in a ceremony to commemorate victims of Thursday’s terror attack.

Holding white or red roses aloft, thousands in the crowd chanted and shouted “Viva! Espana” and “No tinc por” (“I’m not afraid”).

Amid temperatures in the high 20s (Celsius) and a beating near-midday sun, Barcelona’s Plaça de Catalunya, at the top of Las Ramblas, fell silent to honour the 13 killed and over 100 injured in Thursday’s van attack. 

Police announced today that a woman ploughed down by a car in Cambrils in a separate attack has also died, bringing the death toll of Spain’s 24 hours of terror to 14. They believe one of the five terrorists killed in Cambrils could have been the driver of the van in Barcelona.

UK authorities are “urgently looking into reports” of a British dual-nationality child believed to be missing in Spain following the terror attacks, Prime Minister Theresa May said.

The Foreign Office also confirmed that a “small number” of Britons were injured in terror attacks in the country and that additional staff have been sent to Barcelona to help.

At the memorial, applause rang out for the arrival of Spain’s King Felipe VI as a flock of pigeons rose.

Amid a mood of reflection, police patrolled the roads surrounding the busy square, the centre of the Spanish city’s normally chaotic tourist district.

Queues of people lined roads to get into the square itself, with police officers conducting careful searches of bags and persons.

“If we just shut down and close then they win,” Diana Daniels, an American living in Barcelona, told HuffPost.

“Of course we have to get on because if we don’t they win,” she said of the perpetrators of Thursday’s attacks. 

Daniels, who witnessed crowds running and screaming through the window of her office just metres from Las Ramblas, said while Thursday’s events were terrifying, they won’t alter the spirit of many here.

“We will get on, we have to,” she added. 

“We come here to pay respects, of course, it is important,” Laura, another Barca native, who declined to give her last name, said.

“Normally we don’t queue to get into this place, today is different,” she added.

Susan McLean, an Australian national who is currently travelling with her husband in Barcelona, was around 100 metres away from Las Ramblas when the attack occurred.

McLean told HuffPost that while there now appears to be a strong police presence in the city, local residents and tourists are continuing about their daily lives “to show that they would not be silenced”.

“There’s still many streets blocked off. They’ve just had a memorial service, they don’t do a minute silence here, they do a minute clapping. They had two of those and chanting, so there were thousands of people paying respects and showing solidarity,” she said.

“The city is quite subdued this morning but in the 15 minutes leading up to midday when they had that service, Las Ramblas was full of people striding towards the Plaça de Catalunya to show their respects and to show that they would not be silenced.

“There is no one in Las Ramblas that appears visibly affected [by the attack]. Everyone is marching and standing strong.”

The scene of Thursday’s van attack, which killed 13 and injured 100, was just yards away, packed with visitors keen to pay their respects to those lost. 

The van driver involved in the attack is still at large, having fled from the scene by foot. So-called Islamic State have taken responsibility for the attack. 

Just hours later, five suspected terrorists were shot dead by police in Cambrils, 70 miles south of Barcelona, when a car mowed into pedestrians, killing one woman and injuring several others.

It is believed that the attack was linked to the incident in Barcelona, with the suspects wearing suicide belts which were later found to be fake. 

Police announced this afternoon that the suspects’ car contained knives and an axe, with one victim receiving facial wounds before the five men were shot dead. 

One witness of the attack, which took place in the early hours of Friday morning, said one of the suspects “taunted” police, smiling at officers after he was shot. 

Fitzroy Davis, who was in Spain for a judo event, told the BBC: “He stood back up and then he stepped over the fence and he started, he was taunting, smiling and he carried on walking to the police, and then they gave it to him again, a couple more shots and then he fell to the ground.”