Some 120 gas canisters found for ‘one or more’ attacks in Barcelona: police

Police said Sunday they have found more than 120 gas canisters in a house in Alcanar, where suspects of this week’s twin assaults in Spain were believed to be building bombs for ‘one or more’ attacks in Barcelona.

“We’re starting to see clearly that (the Alcanar house) was the place where they were preparing explosives for one or more attacks in the city of Barcelona,” police chief of Catalonia region Josep Lluis Trapero told journalists.

On the eve of the attack in Barcelona, an explosion had occurred at the house about 200 kilometres south of the city, and police believe it was detonated in error by the suspected jihadists.

Grief-stricken Barcelona paid homage Sunday to victims of two terror assaults at a mass in the city’s Sagrada Familia church, as investigators turned their focus to a missing Moroccan imam believed to have radicalised the young attackers.

King Felipe, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Catalonia’s president Carles Puigdemont led the ceremony mourning the 14 people killed by jihadists who used vehicles to mow down pedestrians in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas boulevard on Thursday and in the nearby seaside resort of Cambrils early Friday.

“These have been days of tears, many tears,” said auxiliary bishop Sebastia Taltavull.

Outside the church, snipers were posted on rooftops surrounding the landmark building by Gaudi, while heavily armed police stood guard as hundreds of people gathered under grey skies.

Source: Some 120 gas canisters found for ‘one or more’ attacks in Barcelona: police | SBS News