Suspected Barcelona attack driver shot dead

Spanish police has confirmed that the suspected driver behind the Barcelona terror attack, Younes Abouyaaqoub has been shot dead, putting an end to the international manhunt.

Emergency workers stand on a street in Barcelona, blocked after the first terrorist attack happened on August 17.(Photo | AP)

BARCELONA: Spanish police has confirmed that the suspected driver behind the Barcelona terror attack, Younes Abouyaaqoub has been shot dead, putting an end to the international manhunt for Europe's most-wanted man.

“We confirm that the man shot down in #subirats is Younes Abouyaaqoub, author of the terrorist attack in Barcelona,” Catalonia police tweeted.

The operation took place in Subirats, one hour's drive west of Barcelona. He was killed by police while wearing a suspected explosives belt.

Earlier, police said Abouyaaqoub fled the scene of Thursday's attack on foot and hijacked a car to escape. He is alleged to have stabbed the owner of the car, Pau Perez, as he parked the vehicle, and drove off with his body inside the car.

A manhunt was underway across Europe to find the main suspect, the driver of the white Renault Kangoo van that was involved in the terror attack on Las Ramblas in the heart of Barcelona, amid fears that he may have crossed into France.

Investigators have said that the Barcelona and Cambrils terror attacks are closely linked as that was hatched in a house that the plotters had used as a bomb factory, the Telegraph reported.

An explosion at a house in Alcanar, which is about 125 miles southwest of Barcelona, took place before the Las Ramblas attack. Police currently believe the Barcelona and Cambrils incidents were planned in Alcanar - linking all three events.

Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero said that explosives were found in the Alcanar property and that police "are working on the hypothesis that these attacks were being prepared in that house."

Around 14 people were killed and 100 injured in three terror-related incidents in Catalonia, Spain, including attack in Barcelona.

Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22-year old Moroccan national, is believed to be the driver of the white van involved in the attack on Thursday afternoon, but was not among those shot dead by security forces later that night.