Barcelona on alert after US warning on risk of attack

The city of Barcelona, ​​already victim of an attack in 2017, was on alert on Monday after a warning from US authorities about a risk of terrorist attack for the holiday season.

"Spain: be extra cautious in areas where there are vehicle movements, including buses, in the Ramblas area of ​​Barcelona at Christmas and New Year's," the business office wrote American State Department consular offices on his Twitter account.

#Spain: Exercise heightened caution around areas of vehicle movement, in the Las Ramblas area of ​​Barcelona during Christmas and New Year's. Terrorists can attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, and other public areas. pic.twitter.com/MPGiZwMwxq

"Terrorists could commit an attack (...) and target tourist areas, transport or other public areas," he added.

Several police vehicles stationed in the Ramblas area. At a few hours before Christmas, the Barcelonians were doing their last Christmas shopping in relative tranquility but the police presence intensified in the afternoon near the Ramblas. Several police vehicles were posted at the beginning of the famous promenade, which was the scene of a terrorist attack in 2017, and about thirty agents were divided between this area and the adjacent Plaza Catalunya.

The regional police of "Mossos d'Esquadra and the rest of the police force are working on this threat," said Monday on local radio Rac1 the regional manager of the Interior in Catalonia, Miquel Buch, stating that it is was "one more threat" among others.

The country remains at the 4 out of 5 level of terrorist alert. According to the local press, the police are looking for a Moroccan who holds a driving license. According to the daily El Periodico de Catalunya , this man planned to rush into the crowd with a bus in Spain's second most populous city. The media noted, however, that the authorities did not know if this person was in Spanish territory.

Contacted by AFP, the regional police did not confirm this information but acknowledged "a punctual reinforcement of security measures in areas of high affluence". A spokesman for the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, for its part, stressed that the country remained at the 4 of 5 level of terrorist alert set in 2015, but that the security measures had been reinforced on 11 December because of the holidays. end of year.

14 dead in the 2017 bombing. The Ramblas in Barcelona was the target of a terrorist attack on August 17, 2017, when a 22-year-old Moroccan man had set off on this famous driveway in a van, provoking the 14 people dead. He then fled into a car after killing the driver. A few hours later, five of his accomplices had imitated him, mowing passersby in the seaside resort of Cambrils before attacking with a knife and stabbing a woman to death. This double attack was claimed by the jihadist Islamic State organization.