Five suspects wearing explosive belts mowed down civilians in the seaside town of Cambrils, Spain, early Friday before they were killed in a shootout with police just hours after a similar terror attack in Barcelona, local officials said.
"The alleged terrorists were in an Audi A3 and apparently knocked down several people before coming across a police patrol and a shoot-out ensued," said a spokesman for the regional government of Catalonia.
Police shot and killed four suspects in the town about 70 miles south of Barcelona. A fifth was injured and arrested before authorities confirmed the suspect died.
The suspected terrorists were wearing explosive belts, which have been detonated by the police force’s bomb squad.
At least six civilians and one police officer were injured, according to Catalan authorities. Five remain in the hospital.
Among them, one is in critical condition, two sustained serious injuries while another two are stable, according to emergency services.
Police say the suspects in Cambrils were linked to an attack late Thursday afternoon in Barcelona that killed 13 people and injured at least 100 others.
The region's Interior Minister Joaquin Forn told local radio RAC1 early Friday that the Cambrils attack "follows the same trail. There is a connection."
In Barcelona, a white van jumped onto a curb, swerved through the busy thoroughfare and struck pedestrians at Las Ramblas in what police called a terror attack.
ISIS claimed responsibility and two people, including a Moroccan man whose identification was used to rent the van, have been arrested. The driver, who escaped on foot, is still at large, authorities say.
Both incidents in Cambrils and Barcelona are also linked to an explosion in the town of Alcanar that killed one person on Wednesday, according to senior police official Joseph Lluis Trapero.
The people inside the home in Alcanar, about 60 miles south of Cambrils, were "preparing an explosive device," Trapero said.
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