Barcelona terror attack van driver 'may have been shot dead in Cambrils'

The driver of the van in the Barcelona terror atrocity could have been one of the five terrorists shot dead during a second attack in Cambrils, police have said.

A hero lone police officer is said to have shot four of the five terrorists dead as they tried to carry out the attack in the coastal town overnight hours after Thursday's van massacre at Las Ramblas in Barcelona.

Police said four of the five men have been identified and were aged 21, 27, 28 and 34.

Three were Moroccan and one was Spanish, and police said none of them were previously known to the security services for terror-related reasons.

But Catalan regional police official Josep Lluis Trapero told reporters the fifth man had not yet been identified.

He revealed that police had yet to identify the Barcelona driver and said: "It could be one of the people shot in Cambrils, but we don't know yet."

On the lone officer, Mr Trapero said: "To kill four people, even if you are a professional, is not easy to digest."

A woman injured in Friday's attack in the Catalan coastal town later died, bringing the dead toll from the twin attacks to 14, plus 130 injured.

Scotland Yard said officers are waiting at ports to speak to British holidaymakers returning from the Spanish city to take witness accounts.​

Prime Minister Theresa May said a child with dual British nationality was believed to be among those unaccounted for.

Mr Trapero said an explosion at a house in the town of Alcanar on Wednesday had meant the attacks were more "rudimentary" than planned.

"We are working on the hypothesis that these attacks were being prepared for a while around this private home in Alcanar," he said.

"We think they were preparing at least one or more attacks in Barcelona.

"The explosion in Alcanar at least avoided some of the material they were counting on to carry out even bigger attacks than the ones that happened.

"Because of that the attack in Barcelona and the one in Cambrils were carried out in a bit more rudimentary way than the one they had initially planned."

The grandfather of Julian Alessandro Cadman made a plea for information about the boy, who became separated from his mother during the attack in Barcelona.

Tony Cadman, whose Facebook profile says he lives in Sydney and is from Gillingham, Dorset, posted a photograph of Julian.

Alongside with the photo, he wrote: "My grandson, Julian Alessandro Cadman is missing. Please like and share."

Speaking later from Chequers, Mrs May said: "The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Spain in confronting and dealing with the evil of terrorism, and I have offered any assistance we can provide.

"Sadly I must tell you that we do believe that a number of British nationals were caught up in the attack and we are urgently looking into reports of a child believed missing, who is a British dual national."

The Met’s Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said in statement that officers were at UK ports on Friday taking witnesses accounts from Brits caught up in the attacks.

"We have offered our support and assistance to the Spanish authorities who are continuing to respond to the terrorist incident,” he added.

"The current threat is global and it is only by working together that it can be defeated.

“Our network of counter-terrorism police liaison officers posted in locations around the world help us connect investigations internationally.”

The current threat from international terrorism remains ‘severe’, which means an attack is highly likely, he said.