Spanish police confirmed Monday they have shot and killed the man suspected of using a rented van to run over more than 100 pedestrians during last week’s terror attack in Barcelona.
Police tracked down and shot fugitive Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, along a road in Subirats, a small town about 30 miles west of Barcelona.
Abouyaaqoub had been the target of an international manhunt since Thursday’s attack, which killed 14 people at left at least 100 more injured. Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalonian regional police force, announced through Twitter that Abouyaaqoub was captured in the Subirats operation:
“We confirm that the person taken down in the Subirats incident is Younes Abouyaaqoub, the perpetrator of the terrorist attack in #Barcelona,” Mossos said.
Confirmem que la persona abatuda a l'incident de #Subirats és Younes Abouyaaqoub, autor de l'atemptat terrorista a #Barcelona
— Mossos (@mossos) August 21, 2017
About an hour after the shooting, Mossos released an update that Abouyaaqoub had died:
“We confirm the death of Younes Abouyaaqoub shot in #Subirats,” police said.
Confirmamos la muerte de Younes Abouyaaqoub, abatido en #Subirats / We confirm the death of Younes Abouyaaqoub shot in #Subirats https://t.co/ZzpCBFZOGC
— Mossos (@mossos) August 21, 2017
Spanish authorities named Abouyaaqoub as the suspected driver early Monday morning, saying they had “scientific evidence” that the 22-year-old Moroccan national was behind the wheel, reports the Associated Press. Police say he fled the scene of the attack on foot and later hijacked a car and stabbed its owner to death, bringing the overall death toll to 15.
Abouyaaqoub was wearing what appeared to be a suicide explosive belt when he was discovered late Monday afternoon, police sources told Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia.
Authorities were first alerted to Abouyaaqoub’s presence in Subirats when a local resident saw a man who matched his description and called police. Responding officers located Abouyaaqoub and shot him when they observed the explosive belt. An explosives disposal team was deployed to investigating the bomb belt, reports La Vanguardia.
Abouyaaquoub was the last remaining fugitive from the 12-person terror cell that carried out the Barcelona attack and a related incident in the seaside Spanish town of Cambrils. Early Friday morning, police shot dead five attackers who were wearing fake bomb belts in Cambrils, and arrested four other suspects over the weekend.
Two suspected cell members are believed to have died Wednesday in an explosion in a house in the town of Alcanar, about 100 miles southwest of Barcelona. Spanish authorities believe the accidental explosion occurred while the two men were preparing explosives for the Barcelona attack, likely preventing a much deadlier scene at Las Ramblas.
All of the men either killed or detained had come under the tutelage of an Islamic State-linked imam who preached in Ripoll, a small mountain town where several of the suspects lived. The imam, Abdelbaki Essati, is thought to be one of the group members killed in the explosion in Alcanar.
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