Spanish police have shot dead an Islamist militant who killed 13 people with a van in Barcelona last week, ending a five-day manhunt for the perpetrator of Spain’s deadliest attack in over a decade.
Key points:
- Abouyaaqoub was shot after he held up what appeared to be an explosive belt
- Police said they received a tipoff of his whereabouts from a local woman
- Police have discovered 120 gas canisters, leading to suspicions a bigger plot was in the works
Police said they tracked down 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub to a rural area near Barcelona and shot him after he held up what looked like an explosives belt and shouted “Allahu Akbar”.
“Shortly before 5:00pm (local time), the police shot down Younes Abouyaaqoub, the driver of the van in the attack,” Carles Puigdemont, head of the Catalonia regional government, told a news conference.
Abouyaaqoub had been on the run since Thursday evening, after he drove a van at high speed into throngs of people strolling along Barcelona’s most famous avenue, Las Ramblas.
Islamic State claimed responsibility and police believe the attack was planned by a dozen accomplices, including a brother and two first cousins of Moroccan-born Abouyaaqoub.
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