Barcelona terror attacks: Spanish police launch manhunt for suspects; father of killed terrorist 'shocked' at his involvement

Spanish police expanded a manhunt for a Moroccan national believed to be one of the perpetrators of twin terror attacks in Barcelona and another seaside resort that killed 14 and wounded around 100.

With the country in shock after the carnage which saw two men deliberately ploughing vehicles into crowds of pedestrians, Madrid mulled raising the terror alert to the maximum in the world's third most popular tourist destination.

With investigators working round the clock to identify the network behind the bloodshed, police said they were hunting for 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub without confirming reports he was the driver who ploughed a van into pedestrians in Barcelona on Thursday.

Thirteen people died at the scene and scores more were injured in scenes of horror witnessed by terrified friends and relatives, with locals and tourists laying flowers, candles and teddies in their memory.

Investigators meanwhile were working furiously to unravel the terror cell of at least 12 young men - some of them teenagers - behind the Barcelona rampage and a second ramming attack with a car in the seaside town of Cambrils.

Armed Catalan Mossos dEsquadra officers patrol along La Barceloneta beach in Barcelona - Reuters

One woman was killed and six other people wounded, with police killing five "suspected terrorists" who were in the car and arresting four others.

The Barcelona attack was claimed by the Islamic State group.

Police have also identified another three suspects linked to the attacks, two of whom are thought to have died in a blast on Wednesday night as they tried to make explosives at a house in Alcanar, a town some 200 kilometres (140 miles) south of Barcelona.

As the hunt for Abouyaaqoub gathers pace, Spanish police tipped off their French counterparts about a white van linked to the attacks that may have crossed the border, a French police source told AFP.

Police in Catalonia said three of the suspects shot dead in Cambrils were Moroccan nationals, identifying them as Moussa Oukabir, 17, Said Aallaa, 18, and Mohamed Hychami, 24.

Malian migrant Kouyate Fatoumata, 4, holds hands with Proactiva Open Arms activist Arce Garcia, 27, from Barcelona, Spain, on the deck of the former fishing trawler Golf Azzurro as they pose for photographs, on World Humanitarian Day - Reuters

Moussa's brother Driss is one of the four arrested.

Back in Morocco, their father Said was in shock, with tears in his eyes when he was told of the news while at a wedding, surrounded by relatives.

"We're under shock, completely devastated," he told AFP, saying Moussa had been studying "normally" at school while Driss worked "honestly."

"I hope they will say he's innocent... I don't want to lose my two sons."

Police said they believed the suspects were planning a much larger attack, possibly a vehicle bomb, with the use of gas canisters.

But they appear to have made mistakes, accidentally detonating Wednesday's explosion.

Security forces removed dozens of gas canisters from the house in Alcanar, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.

People react at an impromptu memorial where a van crashed into pedestrians at Las Ramblas in Barcelona - Reuters

"They were preparing one or several attacks in Barcelona, and an explosion in Alcanar stopped this as they no longer had the material they needed to commit attacks of an even bigger scope," said Josep Lluis Trapero of Catalonia's police.

Both attacks followed the same modus operandi with drivers deliberately targeting pedestrians in the latest in a series of such assaults in Europe.

Meanwhile, Spain will maintain its security alert level at 4, one notch below the maximum level which would signal an attack was imminent, after two deadly attacks in the northeastern region of Catalonia this week, Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said.

Zoido added that the government would reinforce security in crowded areas and tourist hotspots, after a van mowed down people in Barcelona on Thursday, killing 13 people including many foreign visitors.

Another person died after a separate attack in the resort town of Cambrils, where police shot five suspects dead.

"We are going to redirect our efforts and will adapt these to every place or area that needs special protection," Zoido told a news conference.

Zoido also said Spanish authorities considered the cell behind the attacks had been fully dismantled.

MY SON SHOWED NO SIGNS OF RADICALISATION: FATHER OF SUSPECTED TERRORIST

Meanwhile, Residents of Melouiya, a village high in Morocco's Atlas Mountains, are in shock at the news two of their sons were implicated in terror attacks in Spain.

A traditional tent set up on a rocky patch of ground near the rough stone house of the Oukabir family, originally intended for a wedding reception, has been turned into a funeral tent.

"Joy has given way to sadness and pain," said Abderrahim, in his forties, an uncle of the Oukabir brothers.

Two women light a candle at an impromptu memorial where a van crashed into pedestrians at Las Ramblas in Barcelona - Reuters

Driss Oukabir, 27, was arrested in the Spanish town of Ripoll on Thursday just hours after a van sped into crowds on the busy Las Ramblas avenue in central Barcelona, leaving 13 people dead.

His brother Moussa, 17, was one of five "suspected terrorists" shot dead after knocking down pedestrians in the Catalan seaside resort of Cambrils in a second attack in the early hours of Friday.

"We are in shock, completely distraught", said the father of the two young men, Said, with tears in his eyes.

With an athletic build and a baseball cap on his head, he was surrounded by family members, neighbours and friends who had come to offer their condolences.

"Spanish police called Moussa's mother who is in Spain to tell her that he was dead," he told AFP shortly before the official announcement by police on Friday night.

The twin terror attacks left 14 people dead and some 120 wounded.

"We are simple, peaceful people. We don't know anything about radicalism or terrorism," another resident told AFP. The economy of the impoverished, mostly Berber-speaking region is based mainly on farming, herding and money sent home by family members working in Europe.

A combo of handout images released by the Catalan regional police "Mossos DEsquadra" on August 18, 2017 shows four suspects of the Barcelona and Cambrils attacks, (from L) Moussa Oukabir, Said Aallaa, Mohamed Hychami and Younes Abouyaaqoub

Said Oukabir left to try his luck on the other side of the Mediterranean in the 1990s.

With his son Driss, who was 10 at the time, he headed for the province of Girona in Catalonia.

Moussa, who would have celebrated his 18th birthday in October, was born in Ripoll, a Spanish town of around 10,000 people about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Barcelona.

The family have since lived between Spain, Melouiya and the nearby town of Aghbala.

The news that the two brothers were implicated in the Spain attacks shocked relatives, who said they had no idea the two had been radicalised.

"The whole region is in shock," Moussa's uncle said. "He was gentle, always smiling, he didn't smoke or drink."

Said said his sons had shown no sign of radicalisation.

"They lived like the young people of their age, dressed like them," their father said.

"Moussa was a nice boy who didn't hurt anyone.

"He was attending classes and was going to take his high school exams next year. He recently started praying... but it stopped there."

He said the young man had "doubtless" been manipulated.

Driss had "left school early to work honestly and earn a living", he said.

"Today he is between the hands of God and the police. He is under investigation. I hope they will say he's innocent. I don't want to lose both my sons."