Driver in Barcelona van attack still on the run — Spanish police

The driver of a van that mowed into a packed street in Barcelona, killing at least 13 people and injuring around 100 others, is still on the run, Spanish police said Thursday.

Catalonia Police Major Josep Lluis Trapero told reporters that two other people suspected of being involved in Thursday’s terror attack had been arrested — a Spaniard and a Moroccan.

He said the white van sped into the famous Las Ramblas street in Barcelona, one of the city’s busiest, around 4:50 pm (1450 GMT).

“It was full of pedestrians and knocked over lots of people… over many meters,” he said.

One of the suspects arrested over the attack is a man born in the Spanish territory of Melilla in northern Morocco, he said.

The other, Driss Oukabir, is Moroccan.

Neither of them had any criminal record, he added.

In a further twist, Trapero said police suspected a deadly explosion late Wednesday at a house in Alcanar some 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of Barcelona was linked to the van attack.

Trapero said the explosion left at least one person dead, and police suspected those in the house were “preparing an explosive device.”

“It seems there was an accumulation of gas that generated the explosion,” he said, without giving further details.

The Spanish suspect was arrested in Alcanar, while Oukabir was held in Ripoll in northern Catalonia.

In another incident Thursday, police shot at a vehicle that forced its way through a roadblock in Barcelona after the van attack, knocking down two officers.

Belgium said one of its citizens had died in the Las Ramblas assault, while The Hague said three Dutch were injured and a Greek diplomat three nationals had been wounded — a woman and her two children.

Thursday’s attack drew condemnation from across the globe.

Spain’s royal family vowed that their country would not be “terrorised” by extremists.