Many people around the world turned to social media when news of the terror attack in Spain broke out. Now people are reaching out to help those effected and mourn for the lives that were lost.
- ISIS claims responsibility for 2 attacks in Spain
- Facebook has turned on its safety check
There are several videos of people running emergency vehicles speeding by and chaos as one person describes it after the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack in the Las Ramblas area in Barcelona where those 13 people were killed and more than 100 people injured from a van that drove into a crowd.
Authorities said there were two vehicle attacks — as well as an explosion earlier this week elsewhere in Catalonia — that are connected and the work of a large terrorist group. Three people were arrested, but the driver of the van used in the Barcelona attack remained at large and the manhunt intensified for the perpetrators of the latest European rampage claimed by ISIS.
Authorities were still reeling from Thursday’s Barcelona attack when police in the popular seaside town of Cambrils, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) to the south, fatally shot five people near the town’s boardwalk who had plowed into a group of tourists and locals with their blue Audi 3. Six people, including a police officer, were injured, though it wasn’t clear how badly.
Catalonia’s interior minister, Joaquim Forn, told Onda Cero radio that the five suspects killed in a subsequent shootout with police were wearing fake bomb belts.
The terrorist group ISIS claimed responsibility, saying in a statement on its Aamaq news agency that the attack was carried out by “soldiers of the Islamic State” in response to the extremist group’s calls for followers to target countries participating in the coalition trying to drive it from Syria and Iraq.
The President of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont posted this on Twitter.
Our thoughts are with the victims of the horrible attack in #Barcelona. Terror will not defeat our society and values. Freedom will prevail.
— Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) August 17, 2017
President Donald Trump also took to Twitter to condemn the attack.
The United States condemns the terror attack in Barcelona, Spain, and will do whatever is necessary to help. Be tough & strong, we love you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017
The safety check on Facebook was activated so people around the world can see if their family or friends are safe.
There is also a fairly new feature where you can see who in that area needs help and who is offering help.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.