Barcelona attack suspect Younes Abouyaaqoub ‘shot dead’ by Spanish cops while wearing suicide vest after killing 13 in Las Ramblas van massacre
Police said suspect Younes Abouyaaqoub was the driver of the van that killed 13 people on Las Ramblas
BARCELONA terror suspect Younes Abouyaaqoub has been shot and killed by cops while wearing a suicide belt, according to local reports.
Cops suspect the 22-year-old was the driver of the van that killed 13 people on tourist hotspot Las Ramblas.
Officers confirmed that a man wearing a suicide belt had been shot by police, but it is not known if the device was real or fake.
The shooting took place in Subirats, a town about an hour's drive west from Barcelona.
Bomb disposal officers are using a robot to inspect the suspected explosive device.
A Mossos d’Esquadra spokesman said: “We cannot at this stage confirm that the man who has been shot is Younes Abouyaaquoub.
“What we can confirm is that the suspicious person was wearing what appeared to be an explosives belt.
“I cannot say at this stage whether he has been killed or not.”
“What we can confirm is that the suspicious person was wearing what appeared to be an explosives belt.
“I cannot say at this stage whether he has been killed or not.”
However, Spanish television station TVE says the man shot down in Subirats is Abouyaaqoub, citing sources on the investigation.
Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia reported a woman recognised the man as he approached her street and when she challenged him he ran towards a vineyard.
She then called the cops.
Earlier today chilling CCTV images emerged of the Las Ramblas massacre driver calmly fleeing the scene on foot after killing 13 and injuring more than 100 others.
Abouyaaqoub abandoned the van he had ploughed into pedestrians after the airbag was triggered, La Vanguardia reported.
The airbag's detonation reportedly immobilised the Renault Kangoo's electrical system, forcing him to end his massacre and flee.
He would go on to a stab another man to death before stealing his victim's Ford Focus to make his escape from Barcelona, police have revealed.
Cops believe the attacker took the car about 90 minutes after the attack and rammed into officials at a police checkpoint before abandoning it with its owner's dead body inside.
The 15th victim of last week's atrocities in Spain was killed in a separate attack by suspected Islamist militants hours later in a seaside resort in Cambrils.
Victims included seven-year-old British boy Julian Cadman who has been described as an “energetic, funny and cheeky” boy.
Cops launched a Europe-wide hunt for Abouyaaqoub and issued CCTV images in the hope of tracking him down.
Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero admitted that the fugitive could have changed his appearance since going on the run last Thursday.
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