Spanish Police has launched a massive manhunt for the man suspected of killing 13 people and injuring scores in a terrorist attack on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas on Thursday.
According to Spanish media, the man around whom the dragnet was thrown is 18-year-old Moussa Oukabir.
He is suspected of using his brother’s documents to rent the van that mowed down people on the famous boulevard, the BBC reported.
Hours later, police killed five suspected jihadists in a second vehicle attack in the town of Cambrils.
A woman injured in that attack died later.
Police said the men killed in Cambrils were linked to the Barcelona attack, which the Islamic State group said it had carried out.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy condemned what he called a “jihadist attack” in Barcelona.
Read also: Barcelona attack: Blind violence is ‘very great insult’ to God – Pope
He has announced three days of national mourning and a minute’s silence was held at noon on Friday.
Police also said they were investigating the hypothesis that the attacks were being prepared over a substantial period of time in a private house in Alcanar, a small town south of Barcelona.
Explosions ripped through the building on Wednesdayevening, apparently caused by exploding gas canisters.
One person was killed.
The explosives were apparently being prepared for use in one or more attacks in Barcelona, police said.
Catalan Police Chief Josep Lluis Trapero said the actual attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils were “rudimentary” in comparison.
Spanish media quoted police as saying that Moussa Oukabir was sought urgently, but they will not say directly that he is the man believed to have been behind the wheel of the van.
Two images of Moussa Oukabir used in the Spanish press, were taken from social media.
The driver of the van fled on foot after mowing down tourists and locals on Las Ramblas.
Catalonia’s Interior Minister Joaquim Forn, quoted by the Associated Press, said: “We had local police on the scene, but we were unable to shoot him, as the< Ramblas were packed with people.”
