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Police kill man who could be Barcelona attack fugitive: source

BARCELONA – Spanish police on Monday (Aug 21) killed a man who could be Younes Abouyaaqoub, the alleged fugitive driver of a van that mowed down crowds in Barcelona, a source close to the probe said.

In this watermarked frame grab from CCTV released by the Spanish newspaper El Pais on Monday (Aug 21), a suspect believed to be Younes Abouyaaqoub is captured by a security camera walking through La Boqueria market seconds after a van crashed into pedestrians in Barcelona last August 17. Photo: AP

In this watermarked frame grab from CCTV released by the Spanish newspaper El Pais on Monday (Aug 21), a suspect believed to be Younes Abouyaaqoub is captured by a security camera walking through La Boqueria market seconds after a van crashed into pedestrians in Barcelona last August 17. Photo: AP

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BARCELONA – Spanish police on Monday (Aug 21) killed a man who could be Younes Abouyaaqoub, the alleged fugitive driver of a van that mowed down crowds in Barcelona, a source close to the probe said.

"They have shot dead a suspect who could be the perpetrator of the attack," the source, who declined to be named, told AFP.

Police in Catalonia confirmed that a man wearing what appeared to be a suicide belt had been killed in Subirats, some 60 kilometres away from Barcelona, but did not identify him.

Abouyaaqoub, 22, is suspected of ploughing a van through throngs of tourists and locals on Thursday on the busy Las Ramblas  boulevard in Barcelona, killing 13 people.

He fled the scene on foot and stabbed to death a passer-by, hijacking his car to escape the city.

Last Friday morning, other members of a terror cell he belonged to drove their car into pedestrians in the seaside town of Cambrils, with one of them stabbing a woman who later died.

All five occupants of the car were shot dead by police, with other members of the 12-man terror cell that organised the attacks detained or believed dead.

Abouyaaqoub was the only one still at large. AFP

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