Police investigating two terror attacks in Spain were probing the wreckage of a suspected bomb factory Saturday, as they continued to hunt for a fugitive suspect named as Younes Abouyaaqoub.
The flattened ruins of a house in the village of Alcanar have become the center of a massive police investigation into a terror cell suspected of using the house to make bombs.
When an explosion destroyed the house Wednesday night, killing one person and seriously injuring another — now arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attacks — it set in train a series of events culminating in the deaths of 13 people in Barcelona and one more in the town of Cambrils.
A Catalan police spokesman said Abouyaaqoub, a suspect in Thursday’s deadly attack in Barcelona, remains on the run.
He also confirmed the names of three of the five suspected terrorists who were killed in a confrontation with police in Cambrils hours after the attack in Barcelona: Moussa Oukabir, Said Aallaa and Mohamed Hychami. Spanish media report that Abouyaaqoub is a 22-year-old Moroccan national.
A massive manhunt has been underway since a van plowed into pedestrians on a bustling thoroughfare in the heart of Barcelona on Thursday afternoon, killing 13 and injuring 120.
Hours later, a group of five attackers drove into pedestrians in the town of Cambrils, killing one and injuring six, in the early hours of Friday. Police shot dead the five attackers, who they said were armed with knives, axes and fake explosive belts.
Four people have been arrested, three in the town of Ripoll and one in the village of Alcanar.
Spain’s threat level will remain at Level 4 following the terror attacks, Spain’s Interior Minister, Juan Ignacio Zoida, said in a press conference on Saturday. This is one level down from the maximum.
However, security measures will be enhanced in areas where there are large crowds of people. All prevention plans that the authorities have will be reinforced, the minister said, before adding that there does not appear to be an immediate threat of another attack.
Bulldozer clears rubble in Alcanar
Now the ruins of the house in Alcanar, a quiet beach town about 125 miles south of Barcelona, may hold the key to unraveling the plans and methods of what police believe was a terror cell of about 12 people.
Police suspect the property was being used as a base to make explosives that could have been used in even more devastating attacks in Barcelona, Cambrils and possibly elsewhere, had they not blown up prematurely.
Explosives experts brought in a bulldozer Saturday to clear the rubble in Alcanar, as police warned residents to expect more blasts from controlled explosions.
“If you hear detonations DO NOT be alarmed,” the force tweeted.
Alcanar’s vice-mayor, Jordi Bort, told CNN that the house, in the town’s Montecarlo area, belonged to a bank and had been illegally squatted by the group without its knowledge.
The town is home to a mix of yearlong residents and some who just spend their holidays or weekends here, he said. The neighbors did not suspect any wrongdoing at the property.
The septic tank of the house, which had only one floor, was being used as storage for the tanks and explosives, Bort said.
Police said Friday there were other “biological remains” found at the site, but it is unclear whether they belong to a different person.
Source: Traces of TATP found
Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero on Friday told reporters that Wednesday’s explosion meant the attackers were unable to use material they were planning to deploy in attacks.
The attack in Barcelona, capital of the Spanish region of Catalonia, was therefore “more rudimentary than they originally planned,” Trapero said.
There were believed to be about 12 suspects in the terror cell altogether. Saturday’s controlled explosions may help authorities to understand what materials and methods were involved in their planning.
Trapero said the suspects in the Alcanar house had been trying to “make explosives out of butane gas among other things.”
A source briefed on the investigation said a preliminary assessment of the Alcanar property indicated there were traces of the powerful explosive TATP in the rubble.
TATP is made by adding an acid to a mixture of acetone and hydrogen peroxide solution and can easily result in accidental detonation if mistakes are made in preparation. It is a high explosive that is much more powerful than that used in the April 2013 Boston bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 250 others.
TATP was used in the November 2015 Paris attacks, the March 2016 Brussels bombings, the Manchester bombing in May and a failed bomb attempt by an Islamist extremist at the Gare Centrale in Brussels in June.
Many Islamist terrorists who have successfully made TATP have received some form of terrorist training.
Crowds show defiance, solidarity
In Barcelona, crowds returned to Las Ramblas on Saturday morning and street vendors were once again selling drinks and ice cream from kiosks on the Plaça de Catalunya, close to where Thursday’s attack started.
Plenty of tourists could be seen, although there was still an obvious a security presence at the entrances to metro stations.
Spain’s threat level will remain at Level 4 following the terror attacks, Spain’s Interior Minister, Juan Ignacio Zoida, said in a press conference on Saturday. This is one level down from the maximum.
However, security measures will be enhanced especially when dealing with areas where there are large crowds of people. All prevention plans that the authorities have will be reinforced, the minister said, but added that there does not appear to be an immediate threat of another attack.
On Friday, many residents and visitors joined a vigil for the attack victims and marched in solidarity, chanting: “We are not afraid.” Flowers, candles and messages of support were left at makeshift memorials along Las Ramblas.
King Felipe, the Spanish head of state, was expected to visit injured survivors of the attack in two hospitals on Saturday.