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Agence France-Presse

Barcelona’s most famous street was packed with tourists when the suspected terrorist drove his van into the crowd.
There was immediate carnage and panic.
“There were bodies on the floor with people crowding round them. People were crying,” said Xavi Perez, who sells sports magazines just 100 metres away from Thursday’s attack, that left at least 13 people dead and about 100 injured.
Among the foreigners on Las Ramblas was Aamar Anwar, a renowned Scottish human rights lawyer who was in Barcelona for a conference and had been walking down the boulevard when the terror unfolded.

Estampida ahora mismo en El Corte Inglés de Plaza Catalunya en Barcelona pic.twitter.com/72LLRmJjRk
— Jordi Perez Colome (@jordipc) August 17, 2017

<![CDATA[// ><!]]>


“All of a sudden I heard a crashing noise and the whole street just started to run, screaming,” he told Sky News, describing a scene of thousands of people struck by chaos and panic.
“I saw a woman next to me screaming for her kids.
13 dead in Barcelona terrorist attack, one Hongkonger injured
“Literally within 30 seconds, police vans, ambulances, police officers with guns were piling out, and we were sectioned off and then being pushed rapidly back,” he said.
Another witness said he saw a man fleeing.

#Barcelona pic.twitter.com/bQBGDMON4n
— Bradley Barber (@Bradley_Barber) August 17, 2017

<![CDATA[// ><!]]>


“I saw a man run down the Ramblas, with police chasing him and he appeared to drop a black metal object. It looked like a pistol,” said the witness who only gave his first name, Sergio.
Another man at the scene told Spanish television channel TVE that he saw the suspect.
“It was a person in their 20s, he was very young, brown hair, a slim face. I saw him when the van stopped. We were very close to everything.”
As people ran for their lives they were replaced by armed police officers who sealed off the scene.
“Van upon van of police officers” then arrived, Anwar said. “They have quite clearly unfortunately had to plan for something like this.”
Another visitor, Susan McLean, who was 100 metres away, said it was terrifying.
“All of a sudden, scores of people ran towards us - hysterical, children hysterical. They first of all said someone had been shot.
World leaders condemn Barcelona terrorist attack
“It calmed down for a moment then all of a sudden a second wave of people came down the street. Our hotel was one street away so we got ourselves out,” she told Sky.
“We could see the police, we could see all the cars stopped.
“The police were doing their job. We really had no idea what was going on other than we had to get ourselves out of there very quickly.”
Tom Gueller, who lives on an adjoining road, fled the scene when he saw the van hurtling through the crowds.
“I heard screams and a bit of a crash and then I just saw the crowd parting and this van going full pelt down the middle of the Ramblas and I immediately knew that it was a terrorist attack or something like that,” he told BBC radio.
“I ran away, I mean I live near, I had to run back about 50 metres or so and go up to my flat and obviously see what’s happening on the road from my balcony.”
Asked about the van, he said: “It wasn’t slowing down at all. It was just going straight through the middle of the crowds in the middle of the Ramblas.”
Steve Garrett was in a nearby market and sheltered in a bakery with several others.
“Coming from England it was reminding me a great deal of what happened in London, so we were very concerned about what might happen next.”
Armed police then appeared.
“They seemed to sweep through the market area. They seemed to be looking for someone. They were going very carefully, very cautiously, stall to stall,” he said.

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Terror attacks in Spain

‘The whole street started to run, screaming’: carnage and confusion, when terror visited Las Ramblas

Victims are strewn on the ground near Las Ramblas in Barcelona, after a suspected terrorist attack by a man who ploughed a van through crowds of tourists. Photo: Reuters

Forensic workers stand near a dead person at the scene after a van crashed into pedestrians near the Las Ramblas avenue in central Barcelona, Spain August 17, 2017. REUTERS/Giselle Loots MANDATORY CREDIT. SPAIN OUT.

The van who ploughed into the crowd, killing at least 13 people and injuring around 100 others is towed away from the Rambla in Barcelona on August 18, 2017. A driver deliberately rammed a van into a crowd on Barcelona's most popular street on August 17, 2017 killing at least 13 people before fleeing to a nearby bar, police said. Officers in Spain's second-largest city said the ramming on Las Ramblas was a "terrorist attack". The driver of a van that mowed into a packed street in Barcelona is still on the run, Spanish police said. / AFP PHOTO / Josep LAGO

EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT - Injured are helped on a long stretch of pedestrian sidewalk after a white van jumped the sidewalk in the historic Las Ramblas district of Barcelona, Spain, crashing into a summer crowd of residents and tourists Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017. According to witnesses the white van swerved from side to side as it drove into tourists and residents. (EL MUNDO via AP)