Terrorists had been planning the attacks for over six months in Alcanar
Investigators still searching for one attacker, likely to be the driver of the van in La Rambla
Over six months. This is the time which took the terrorists to plan the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, according to Catalan police. Its chief officer, Josep Lluís Trapero, said on Sunday that they think the attacks were prepared in the house in Alcanar that exploded on the early hours of Thursday. The terrorist original plan was to use explosives to attack Barcelona. However, after their bomb factory in Alcanar blast, their plans suddenly changed.
Details found out after searches in Ripoll
The investigators think that before the blast in Alcanar, in southern Catalonia, the terrorists were intending to attack Barcelona “once or more times” on Thursday or the days after. According to Trapero, the searches in different houses, mainly in Ripoll, have enabled them to find out more about the role played by each of the terrorist cell members. He also said that it is now clearer that only one person was on the van when it ran over dozens of people in La Rambla on Thursday evening.
One person at large but identity uncertain
The Catalan police believes that no more than 12 people were part of the cell. Five of them are dead after the clash with the police in Cambrils, and their names are thought to be Moussa Oukabir, Mohamed Hychami, Omar Hychami, Said Aallaa and El Houssaine Abouyaaqoub. Four are under arrest: Mohamed Aallaa, Salah el Karib, Driss Oukabir, Mohamed Houli Chemlal. Concerning the other three, two of them are likely to have died during the blast in Alcanar while the one remaining is missing.
The police chief stated that they know the identities of these three people, but they are waiting for DNA tests to confirm who was killed in the southern Catalan village and who is still at large. Because of that, police has issued an international arrest warrant for all of them. The fugitive is likely to be the person who was driving the van in La Rambla.
Incident in Barcelona outskirts involving a person stabbed to death
Trapero also explained that the Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, launched a big police operation to control all of Barcelona exits and another one in the whole of Catalonia consisting of around 800 checkpoints. Thanks to both these actions, agents found two abandoned vans and intercepted the five terrorists in Cambrils. Besides that, a car skipped a checkpoint in the westbound exit of the Catalan capital and some minutes later the police found a dead body inside.
Although they first thought that the man was the car driver and was killed by police gunshots following the persecution, the autopsy confirmed that he was actually stabbed to death. It is likely that a terrorist robbed the car, killed the driver and used it to flee la Rambla. Trapero said that it has not been proved yet that this incident is related to the attacks, but that many factors point to that. If confirmed, the death toll of the attacks would rise from 14 to 15.
Catalan president says football will help "reconquer normality"
The Mossos d’Esquadra chief officer made these remarks during a press conference addressed to the international media. The Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont also took part, along with the Catalan minister of Home Affairs, Joaquim Forn. Puigdemont said that the country has to “reconquer normality” and events like this Sunday’s FCBarcelona match are to contribute.
New identifications
The local authorities also confirmed some minutes after the press conference that three new casualties in La Rambla have been identified: a minor with British and Australian citizenships, an Italian person and a Belgian. The identities of twelve people killed in Barcelona are now officially revealed, so only two people are yet to be identified.