Spain attacks: Isis claims responsibility for Cambrils car rampage after Barcelona atrocity

Isis has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in Cambrils, Spain, in an official communique.

It had already claimed the prior attack in Barcelona but put out an official statement later encompassing both atrocities, which police in Spain had been treating as linked.

It came as Spanish authorities announced they believed the cell behind the twin attacks in Cambrils and La Rambla, Barcelona, had been "dismantled".

Police had been investigating a cell of between eight and 12 people after a van smashed into pedestrians in the Catalan city on Thursday afternoon, killing 13 and injuring about 100.

The driver fled the scene and later, in the early hours of Friday, a car ploughed into a crowd along the seafront road in Cambrils, about 60 miles away. Five terrorist suspects were shot dead—four by the same police officer.

One woman later died of her injuries, and several other people were injured.

Police believe the cell was planning an even more horrific attack, involving a lorry and explosive gas canisters, after a house explosion in Alcanar on Wednesday uncovered a stash of the containers.

The driver of the van used to kill more than a dozen people in La Rambla is thought still to be on the run. A 22-year-old Moroccan, Younes Abouyaaqoub, is the focus of a new manhunt.

The previous top suspect, 17-year-old Moussa Oukabir, was one of those killed in Cambrils.

Spain's interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, said the country would maintain its security alert level at four, one notch below the maximum level which would signal an attack was imminent.

Mr Zoido added that the government would reinforce security in crowded areas and tourist hotspots.

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

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

Additional reporting by agencies