Police links la Rambla attack with earlier explosions in southern Catalonia

Catalan police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, have linked the attack in Barcelona to two explosions on the early hours of Thursday in a small town in the south of Catalonia, Alcanar. One person died and several were injured in what was initially considered to be a gas blast. Amongst the injured, there were several firefighters and police officers that were at the scene of the first explosion.

"Some elements of the investigation, which we cannot disclose, suggest a clear and with few doubts link between the two incidents," said the head of the Catalan police, Josep Lluís Trapero, in a press conference. In fact, one of the two men in police custody after the attack in Barcelona was arrested in Alcanar. The other was arrested in Ripoll, in northen Catalonia. A van that could have been used to flee Barcelona after the attack was found in Vic, a half an hour drive from Ripoll.

Trapero also explained that neither of the two men arrested as suspects of the attack in Barcelona was driving the van that crashed into pedestrians in la Rambla, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100. One man was from Melilla and the other from Morocco. 

Police earlier released a picture of an alleged suspect of the terrorist attack, Driss Oukabir, who handed himself into police on Thursday evening after seeing his picture on TV. He said to the agents that this younger brother, Moussa, stole his identification documents, ACN has learnt. Oukabir added that he played no part in the attack in Barcelona and that he was actually in his local town of Ripoll when the incident happened.