BARCELONA—A van mowed through crowds of tourists on Barcelona’s most famous avenue on Thursday, killing about a dozen people in an attack that was claimed by the ISIS terrorist group.
The head of the Spanish region of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, said at least 80 people had been taken to hospital and around 12 had died.
He said two people had been arrested. It was still not clear how many attackers had been involved.
Witnesses said the white van zigzagged at high speed down Las Ramblas, a busy avenue thronged with tourists, knocking down pedestrians and leaving bodies strewn across the ground.
ISIS’s Amaq news agency said: “The perpetrators of the Barcelona attack are soldiers of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting coalition states"—a reference to a U.S.-led coalition against the Sunni militant group.
The claim could not immediately be verified.
