Van attack suspect shot and killed miles outside of Barcelona

World Today

Armed policemen walk on a road near Subirats, Spain, during an operation Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. A police operation was underway Monday in an area west of Barcelona, and a Spanish newspaper reports that the fugitive in the city’s van attack has been captured. Regional police said officers shot a man wearing a possible explosives belt in Subirats, a small town 45 kilometers (28 miles) west of Barcelona. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Police have shot and killed Younes Abouyaaqoub, the main suspect in last Thursday’s Barcelona terrorist attack.

CGTN’s Dan Williams has the story.
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Police shot and killed 22-year-old Moroccan-born Abouyaaqoub while he was wearing what turned out to be a fake explosive belt. He was gunned down some 40 kilometers west of Barcelona in the town of Subirats.

After, bomb disposal officers used a robot to examine the fake explosive vest. 

The mayor of nearby San Sadurni said a resident had recognized Abouyaaqoub and tipped off the authorities.

“It was a call from a citizen,” Mayor Maria Rosell Medall said. “We checked it out, and ultimately it was the person that had been wanted in these days. The police then performed a great intervention and went to catch him.” 

Catalan police said the investigation is ongoing. Reports suggested police are searching for another man and a van.

Now that the search for Spain’s most wanted person is over, key questions remain, including: how security forces failed to detect the terrorist group which reportedly had been planning a much larger attack.