Tourist Tells Of How He Comforted Dying Boy On Las Ramblas

‘I had to go to that child. I was not going to leave that child.’

A British tourist caught up in the terror attack on Las Ramblas last Thursday has described how he comforted a dying boy as Barcelona police shouted at him to flee the carnage.

Harry Athwal was inside a restaurant when he saw a white van speed down the tourist strip, sending pedestrians “flying into the air”.

I knew what I had to do. I had to go to that child, I was not going to leave that child.”

The Brit told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that the street was strewn with bodies, but right in the middle there was a young boy, obviously badly injured.

“As soon as I saw that child I knew what I had to do, I had to go to that child, I was not going to leave that child,” he said.

“I checked for a pulse. He didn’t have a pulse. I put my hand on his back and he wasn’t breathing. All I could do then was just sit with that child.

“He had long hair. I just stroked his hair to see if I could comfort him.”

Athwal says the boy appeared to be about seven or eight years old — the same age as his own son.

It is also roughly the same age as seven-year-old Australian boy Julian Cadman, who has been named as one of the victims of the terror attack, but it has not been confirmed whether he was the boy Athwal comforted.

Source: Tourist Tells Of How He Comforted Dying Boy On Las Ramblas