BARCELONA—Regional police in Spain may have missed an opportunity to uncover a terrorist plot ahead of last week’s deadly Barcelona attack due to procedural errors and a lack of communication among investigators, two police sources and two individuals close to the investigation said.
The errors and miscommunication centered around a major blast on Aug 16, the eve of the attack, at a house where suspected Islamist terrorists were making explosives, the sources said.
For several hours, Catalan police did not link the explosion to militancy and so no public alarm was raised, before an accomplice drove a van into crowds in Barcelona, killing 13 people in Spain’s deadliest attack in more than a decade.
FILE PHOTO: Armed Catalan Mossos d'esquadra officers stand guard at Las Ramblas street where a van crashed into pedestrians in Barcelona, Spain, August 18, 2017. Reuters/Sergio Perez/File Photo
