BARCELONA:Barcelona was on alert yesterday after the US State Department warned of therisk of a terrorist attack in Spain's second-largest city during the Christmasholidays. "Exercise heightened caution around areas of vehicle movement,including buses, in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona during Christmas and NewYear's. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting touristlocations, transportation hubs, and other public areas," the StateDepartment's Bureau of Consular Affairs said in a tweet on Sunday.
Asked about thewarning during an interview with Rac1 radio on Monday, Catalonia's regionalinterior minister Miquel Buch said police "were working on thisthreat". "We take seriously all threats, all of them areinvestigated," he added, without giving further details.
Top-sellingSpanish newspaper El Pais, citing anonymous police sources, said theauthorities were looking for a 30-year-old Moroccan man with a licence to drivebuses. Barcelona-based daily El Periodico de Catalunya said Catalan regionalpolice had circulated an internal note that the man could try to drive a businto crowds in Barcelona. Contacted by AFP, a spokesman for the regional policeforce in Catalonia did not confirm police were seeking a Moroccan man but saida "temporary reinforcement of security measures in areas of highconcentration of people" was in place.
Spain has keptits terrorist alert unchanged at the second-highest level despite the US StateDepartment warning, although security measures were boosted in December for theChristmas holiday period, a Spanish interior ministry spokesman said. On August17, 2017 a van rammed into crowds on Barcelona's tree-lined Las Ramblasboulevard, killing 14 people.
The 22-year-oldMoroccan driver then stole a car after killing the driver and fled. Severalhours later five of his accomplices mowed down pedestrians on the promenade ofthe seaside resort of Cambrils south of Barcelona before stabbing a woman todeath. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, Spain'sdeadliest in over a decade. - AFP