The man behind the Barcelona terror attack has been shot dead by police in Subirats in Spain, Catalonia authorities have said.
Younes Abouyaaqoub, the 22-year-old Moroccan, was wearing a fake explosive belt when confronted by police.
Spain’s bomb squad was using a robot to get close to the man.
Police earlier named Abouyaaqoub as the driver of the van that killed 13 people on the crowded boulevard of Las Ramblas in Barcelona last week.
Police had said Abouyaaqoub was the only one of 12 suspects still at large.
Others have been arrested, shot by police or killed in an explosion at a house in Catalonia a day before Thursday’s van attack on Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s most famous boulevard.
“The suspect wore what appeared to be an explosive belt. He has been shot down,” police said in an official tweet that did not make it unequivocally clear that he had been killed.
Police, who have been hunting for Abouyaaqoub since last Thursday’s attack, said earlier on Monday that he had killed another man while stealing a car to make his escape after the attack on Las Ramblas boulevard.
Roser Ventura, whose father owns a vineyard between the towns of Sadurni d’Anoia and Subirats, said he alerted the regional Catalan police when they spotted a car crossing their property at high speed.
“The police told us to leave the premises and go home. We heard a helicopter flying around and many police cars coming toward the gas station that is some 600 meters from the property,” Ventura said.
Earlier Monday, regional police chief Josep Lluis Trapero said investigators have “scientific evidence” showing Abouyaaqoub drove the speeding van in Las Ramblas and killed the owner of a hijacked sedan on Thursday night.
He said the suspect walked through Barcelona for about 90 minutes after the van attack - through the famed La Boqueria market and nearly to Barcelona University - before hijacking the car.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais published images Monday of what it said was Abouyaaqoub leaving the van attack site on foot. The three images show a slim man wearing sunglasses walking through the La Boqueria market.
On Monday, mourners were still weeping and hugging each other as they visited the main memorial site of the Barcelona attack. Crowds of people continued to lay flowers, candles and heart-shaped balloons at the top of Las Ramblas and at other smaller tributes where the van created such carnage.
Las Ramblas regained some normality Monday, with throngs of people walking up and down, tourists arriving and residents going about their daily business.
“We have to stand strong in front of these betrayers, assassins, terrorists,” said resident Monserrat Mora. “Because Barcelona is strong and they will not be able to prevail with us.”