Yahoo News Barcelona attack suspect Younes Abouyaaqoub shot dead wearing suicide belt by Spanish police
Police in Catalonia have shot dead Younes Abouyaaqoub, the probable driver of the van that killed 13 people on Barcelona’s Ramblas last week, as the manhunt zeroed in on him as the last remaining fugitive from the terrorist cell.
The 22-year-old Moroccan was shot by police while wearing a suspected explosives belt.
Mossos tweeted: "Confirm that the man shot dead in #subirats is Younes Abouyaaqoub, author of the terrorist attack in #barcelona".
A bomb-disposal robot was deployed to the scene of the shooting before police were able to approach Abouyaaqoub's body. It was later reported that the belt was a fake.
The operation took place in Subirats, one hour's drive west of Barcelona. High in the hills and surrounded by vineyards, it is a bucolic location that few would imagine as the scene of a terrorist showdown.
Police were alerted to the scene on Monday afternoon after a woman called saying there was a suspicious man in the vicinity.
The public had been warned that he was dangerous and could be armed, and it was feared he could have escaped across the border into France.
After Monday afternoon's shooting, police wearing balaclavas drove unmarked vehicles away from the scene.
Police said their operation on a winding road between two vineyards was ongoing as they were trying to determine if there were other suspects involved in the devastating twin attacks that claimed 15 lives last week.
They had removed the apparent suicide belt from Abouyaaqoub's body but had yet to confirm if it was real or fake.
Roser Ventura, who works at a nearby vineyard, told AFP she saw around 20 police cars drive by with sirens wailing while helicopters rattled overhead, as she heard the news about the shot man on the radio.
Arnau Gomez, who lives about a kilometre away from where the suspect was shot, described the village of 300 people as being an ideal hideout as "it is far from everything".
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.
As the manhunt was launched following the attack, Joaquin Form, the Catalan regional interior secretary, told local radio that “everything indicates” that Abouyaaqoub, a 22-year-old Moroccan and resident of the northern town of Ripoll, was the van driver.
Police crawled over the scene of the confrontation, on a bend in a country road running across a river and flanked by tall banks of reeds.
Maria Rosell i Medall, the mayor of Sant Sadurni, said the situation was now under control, but that police were investigating every call they had received from residents to establish what had brought Abouyaaqoub to the area and whether he might have any local help.
She said Sant Sadurni had always been "a safe and peaceful place" and that there had never been any indication to suggest any terrorist activity in the area. Police had been patrolling the area since the attacks, she said, and swung into action when they received the resident's call Monday afternoon.
Early CCTV images emerged appearing to show Abouyaaqoub making his escape on foot through Barcelona’s La Boqueria market following Thursday afternoon’s attack.
Following the attack, security forces launched a major operation in the north of Catalonia and in particular along the French border. Mr Form said there was no evidence that Abouyaaqoub had left the region, but said authorities were coordinating with other governments as the fugitive was being sought “in all European countries”.
The tip-offs that led to his capture
The chief of the Catalan police force, Major Josep Lluis Trapero, has explained that two different reports were received placing Abouyaacoub in the Subirats area, where he was eventually shot down.
One was from two local police officers, who believed they saw a man looking like the suspect from their patrol car.
At around the same time, a local woman called in saying she had “no doubt” that she had seen Abouyaacoub, who, she added, had been acting suspiciously near her home before running away into a vineyard. She said that her suspicion was confirmed by the fact that he was wearing a long-sleeved top on such a hot afternoon.
Major Trapero described how police officers had approached Abouyaacoub in the vineyard he was crossing. He said that on being asked to stop and identify himself, the terrorist had lifted his shirt to show what appeared to be an explosive belt. Abouyaacoub then said “Allahu Akbar” before the officers shot him down.
Peaceful location rocked by terror
The mayoress of Sant Sadurni, Maria Rosell i Medall, said the situation was now under control, but that police were investigating every call they had received from residents to establish what had brought Abouyaaqoub to the area and whether he might have any local help.
She said Sant Sadurni had always been "a safe and peaceful place" and that there had never been any indication to suggest any terrorist activity in the area. Police had been patrolling the area since the attacks, she said, and swung into action when they received the resident's call on Monday afternoon.
Catalan President addresses reporters
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont announced in a press conference that just before 5pm this afternoon the Catalan police had “shot down Younes Abouyaacoub, the perpetrator of the van attack in Barcelona last Thursday who had caused the death of 14 people”.
Mr Puigdemont said he had informed Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy personally of today’s developments. He also expressed his “profound gratitude” to the Catalan police for their effective action, as well as that of all Catalan security forces.
Abouyaaqoub's final days of hiding
At 4.50pm on Thursday August 17, Younes Abouyaaqoub started his murderous rampage by driving a white Fiat rental van onto the pedestrianised central portion of Barcelona’s famous La Rambla, accessing the northern end of the avenue via Pelai street. After weaving left and right for 500 metres, killing 13 people and injuring scores more, the airbag in the van’s driver seat activated itself, stopping the vehicle in its tracks.
Abouyaaqoub got out of the van and, was apparently filmed on CCTV images walking calmly away through the city’s emblematic La Boqueria food market wearing a blue and white polo shirt, dark trousers, trainers and a pair of sunglasses.
According to Catalonia’s police chief, Major Josep Lluis Trapero, the 22-year-old Moroccan man then “walked and ran” six kilometres across the city in a westerly direction amidst the din of emergency sirens as ambulances transported the dead and injured to hospitals and the police mounted what they dubbed “Operation Cage” aimed at preventing terrorist suspects from escaping the city centre.
At around 6.30pm, an hour and a half after the slaughter on La Rambla, Abouyaaqoub then came across Pau Pérez, a 34-year-old aid worker who was in his car in Barcelona’s University Zone, just off the city’s major El Diagonal traffic artery. According to the police’s version of events, Abouyaaqoub stabbed Pérez several times and took the wheel of his white Ford Focus, shoving his victim’s body into the back of the vehicle.
Abouyaaqoub then drove through a police checkpoint on at the western end of El Diagonal, breaking an officer’s leg. Police fired shots but the car was not stopped.
The Ford Focus was later found abandoned some two miles further west in the Sant Just Desvern area, on the outskirts of Barcelona, with Mr Pérez’s dead body inside. The police initially thought that the incident was not connected to the van attack on La Rambla, having identified the owner of the car as an unlikely terrorist suspect. When the autopsy revealed that Mr Pérez had been stabbed and not hit by a police bullet, investigators began to search for a link to the attacks.
As, over the weekend, investigators untangled the web of the terrorist cell that had formed among young men of Moroccan origins in the small Pyrenean town of Ripoll, Abouyaaqoub was increasingly considered chief suspect of the van attack. Nothing is yet known about what Abouyaaqoub did during that time, except for the fact that he managed to travel some 25 miles west from the place in which he ditched the Ford Focus, possibly across mountainous terrain to the area in which police caught up with him at around 4.30pm on Monday afternoon.
La Vanguardia has reported that Abouyaaqoub was located by the police after a woman in the Subirats area called in after seeing a man who looked like the chief suspect in the Barcelona van attack outside her home. The woman reportedly shouted at him and asked him what he was doing there, causing the suspect to run away into a vineyard.
According to other unconfirmed reports, the woman said that Abouyaqoub had been whistling, as if trying to communicate with someone he had arranged to meet amongst nearby buildings.
Locals say they recognised Abouyaaqoub
Roget Queral, an 18-year-old resident of Sant Sadurni d'Anoia, said he believed he had seen Younes Abouyaaqoub in the area before. He said that when the attacker's image appeared on the news, "I thought, goodness, I recognise him".
Mr Queral said his father also believed he recognised him, as did a number of residents of the town. Mr Queral said he could not be certain it was the same man, but believed he had seen him in Sant Sadurni two or three months ago.
Despite the rural location, a stranger would not necessarily attract attention as it is a much-visited tourist area, which produces the internationally famous Freixenet cava.
There was heavy police activity in the area, with a 500m cordon established around the scene of the shooting. Helicopters hovered overhead as police guarded roads, the Mossos urging locals not to reveal the location of controls.
Bomb robot deployed
A robot to defuse the suspected explosives belt has been deployed to the scene of the shooting in Subirats. It is approaching the site and will assess it for officers.
17:23 TEDAX està utilitzant el robot per apropar-se i fer comprovacions / TEDAX està utilizando el robot para acercarse #Subirats
— Mossos (@mossos) August 21, 2017
Details emerge about shooting
State broadcaster TVE report that the operation took place near a petrol station in a wooded area. Armed officers arrived on the scene after receiving a call from a member of the public.
The regional Mossos d’Esquadra force tweeted at 4.39pm: “Police operation in progress in Subirats. Spread only official information.” It added in another tweet shortly afterwards: “We received an alert about a suspicious person in Subirats and activated a police response which is continuing.”
Shooting confirmed
Spanish police have confirmed that they shot dead a man.
17:05h La persona sospitosa de #Subirats porta adherit al cos el que sembla un cinturó d'explosius. L'individu ha estat abatut
— Mossos (@mossos) August 21, 2017
Police announce operation
The Mossos d'Esquadra have announced an operation in the area but have not confirmed any other details. Spanish media claimed the police had received a tip off from a resident in Subirats and on attending the scene were fired upon. The man was wearing an explosive belt and cried "Allahu Akhbar," according to reports. There was no immediate word on whether the suspect was dead or alive.
16:39h Operatiu policial en marxa a Subirats. Difoneu només informació oficial
— Mossos (@mossos) August 21, 2017
Barcelona suspect caught by police
Spanish police Mossos have stopped Younes Abouyaaqoub in Sant Sadurni, 60km from Barcelona, according to local media reports.
