Joe Duggan (Reporter)
AT LEAST 13 people are reported to have been killed and many wounded as a van ploughed into pedestrians in a terrorist attack in Barcelona.
Police have now confirmed there are 50 injuries after a vehicle careered at high speed down a packed Las Ramblas, the city’s most famous street.
However, Catalan police have confirmed there are no more gunmen holed up in a nearby bar and that one man has been arrested.
A Mossos police spokesperson tweeted: “There are fatalities and injured as a result of the accident.
“There has been no shooting at El Corte Inglés.
Catalan Minister Joaquim Forn said it was the death toll would rise as some of the injuries are ‘very serious’.
One man who lives on the Ramblas told the BBC: “There’s a very heavy police presence and what they’ve been doing is going from establishment to establishment knocking on the doors, knocking on the shutters.
“People have opened the shutters, they’ve been brought out on to the street and once it’s been established that they’re not the people they are looking for, they’ve been escorted away from this particular area.”
Catalan emergency services have ordered the closure of nearby Metro and train stations, according to Reuters.
Earlier, a van careered into dozens of pedestrians along Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s most famous street.
Video showed bodies strewn all down the famous walkway.
Tom Gueller, an eyewitness who fled the scene, told the BBC: ” “I heard screams and a bit of a crash and then I just saw the crowd parting and this van going full pelt down the middle of the Ramblas and I immediately knew that it was a terrorist attack or something like that.
“I ran away, I mean I live near, I had to run back about 50 metres or so and go up to my flat and obviously see what’s happening on the road from my balcony.”
One witness told Spanish TV chanbel TVE24 ‘there is no doubt it was intentional’.
The driver was seen fleeing on foot, according to El Pais.
Guardia Civil and Catalan government officials are set for crisis talks following the incident.
