Spain police hunting 4 suspects linked to twin attacks: report

Madrid, Spain | AFP |Spanish police are looking for four suspects linked to the deadly terror attacks in Barcelona and the seaside resort of Cambrils, newspaper La Vanguardia reported Friday.

The suspects, aged 17, 18, 22 and 24, are of Moroccan origin, the online edition of the Barcelona-based newspaper reported citing an internal police document obtained from investigation sources.

Three suspects live in Ripoll, a town of around 10,000 people located about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Barcelona, while a fourth is from the Catalan town of Ribes de Freser, the newspaper added.

Among those police are hunting is Moussa Oukabir, the brother of Driss Oukabir who was arrested on Thursday in Ripoll just hours after a van sped into crowds on the busy Las Ramblas avenue in central Barcelona, leaving 13 people there dead.

Police said earlier that they were searching for Moussa Oukabir but did not know if he was the driver of the van. They have also said the driver could have been one of the suspected terrorists killed in a police shootout in Cambrils where the second vehicle attack took place.

Contacted by AFP, a police source confirmed that the authorities were looking for four suspects and the number could still grow.

The regional government of Catalonia refused to confirm this information.

Police have so far arrested a total of four people over the attacks, three of them in Ripoll.

Officers searched apartments in Ripoll on Friday, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.

Attackers struck again in the early hours of Friday morning in Cambrils, 120 kilometres south of Barcelona, where an Audi A3 car rammed into pedestrians, killing one person.

Gunfire ensued during which police killed the five attackers.