”fist ‘ur ”fist ‘u15 ii‘ul‘ei facing the future. ”ff ' facing the future. and i efficient facing the future. and i also want to thank all the public officers who have gone through this difficult situation, as you know, at the present time. all my encouragement, my thanks and my, and to tell you that the government will a lwa ys to tell you that the government will always help you. we are not here for political... for police work, but we are here to support the police. and it is very important that they find out who the criminals are and put them away and that they are efficient to prevent this from happening again. so once more, i want, in the name of the spanish government and all spanish people who might feel represented by mike works, —— by my words, to the condolences to all those families who have suffered from this

terrorist attack and our desire that those who have been injured recover. some are in a very difficult situation and i hope that everybody recovers their health. thank you very much. translation: ladies and gentlemen, i will start in catalonian then speak in spanish. i would like to thank the president on the members of the cabinet for attending this meeting to coordinate the police efforts with the collaboration of all the demonstrations and political forces. it has been an effective meeting

where we have exchanged the knowledge we have, the status of the situation, and also to send a message to everyone who is going through this anguish. it is our duty to give our confidence and hope. we have seen this in the plaza catalu nya, and have seen this in the plaza catalunya, and an admirable response from all society. in front of these attacks in barcelona and cambrils. we send a clear message to the terrorists. we are determined to win. to win this battle against terrorism. and doing it in the best way our society has, which is solidarity, freedom, respect. we have seen this this morning and this

afternoon, this terrorist attack has tried to break the way we understand and live life. but the answer from citizens, the immediate answer that we have seen this morning, has been the return to normality. without fear. iam not the return to normality. without fear. i am not fearful, that has continuously bin said, explaining the best weapon that society has. from this point of view, i share with the minister rob a comedy gratefulness for the police bodies. not only to minimise the actions of these attacks, but also to find all

these attacks, but also to find all the guilty people and to prevent the permanent way to guarantee all our citizens who trust our police bodies. it is because of their efforts and sacrifices that we can live in peace and freedom. as mr rajoy were saying, it is not ourjob to be the police. we have to let them do their work. we send the message of solidarity and trust to our citizens. that way we can help each other, with public space. the way we have altogether decided to live in a civilised way. e—mail barcelona has

also come —— the mayor of barcelona has also come, and various bodies have been invited to the meeting to exchange the latest news and information on the attacks on barcelona and cambrils. this is an adequate response, i want to stress and to value what society is doing to show us their attitude. the people of catalonia, and their reactions, we have woken up. still batted emotionally because of what we lived through yesterday. but we also got out of bed determined, determined to win against terrorism, with the best weapon in our society has. that is solidarity. freedom. and, as proof of this, we have had

this admirable, spontaneous demonstration, the shout of "we are not afraid". only a few hours ago battered by the assassins, this is oui’ weapon. battered by the assassins, this is our weapon. this is what we have. together with professionalism, coordination and the efficiency of the security safety parties and in particular special reference to the armed forces, police, because there are two who have been injured. this isa are two who have been injured. this is a global fight against the

terrorists. thank you very much. so that is the president of the gi’oup so that is the president of the group of catalonia, mr rajoy speaking as well, both offering m essa g es of speaking as well, both offering messages of solidarity and unity. worth making the point that it is a bit like stepping into the lion ‘s den in some respects for the prime minister, because there are so many people in catalonia who seek independence from the rest of spain, who want more autonomy. they are not co mforta ble who want more autonomy. they are not comfortable bedfellows, but here, very much a joint message of solidarity from both sides. we also heard from mr rajoy, spelling out that there will be a meeting in the next few days, tomorrow in fact in

madrid, to consider what level of alertness would be appropriate for the country as a whole. seeking by the country as a whole. seeking by the start of next week to reinforce what he calls the anti—terrorist pact, so that all main political parties hold the same views on the position with regards to terrorism issues in spain. you are watching bbc news. thank you for being with us. on that note... let's speak now to ahmed rashid, an author and terrorism expert living in madrid at the moment. thank you forjoining us will. we are still dealing with the shock of what has happened, but in terms of it being within barcelona itself, which you see barcelona as one of those dangerous breeding grounds, particularly, for jihadists? barcelona has been a

breeding ground forjihadists, particularly beginning with al-qaeda since the early 1980s. it has been a logistical harbour, providing money, safe housing, smuggled weapons, training recruits from north africa. for al-qaeda, before 911. then remember that the leader of the 911 attacks on new york actually visited spain, just before he flew the planes into the buildings in new york and washington. since then, other militant groups in north africa, from algeria and of course i says have tended to use barcelona. the spaniards have a real question to ask now, why have i says and these militants decided to muddy their own water. it is not that they have had an easy stay in barcelona, the police have been chasing them, rounding them up, arresting me over

the years. but still, why would you attack your own base area, as it were, rather than carry out an attack in some other city. this is a very important question that needs answering. the second problem is that all the attacks in spain, u nfortu nately, have that all the attacks in spain, unfortunately, have tended to come ata unfortunately, have tended to come at a particularly sensitive time in domestic politics. the variability attacks in madrid railway station in 2004, a few days later led to the colla pse 2004, a few days later led to the collapse of the government after the general election. with the presence state of tension between madrid and barcelona, with catalan government insisting on a referendum in october for independence, and the national government... another very sensitive time, as you point out. i'm sorry to break in there, but we have the

interior minister of catalan, now speaking at a news conference. i wa nt to ta ke speaking at a news conference. i want to take you straight over to that. translation: i will now pass my words over to the police force, who will be able to update us on the latest investigations. good afternoon. first of all, to

express our solidarity with the rest of the police force. as well as all the police forces, spanish police, barcelona police agents. and in general, all the public officers, in the health system, fire, who are working to address the consequences of this tragic incident. on their behalf as well, i would like to express the gratitude for all these efforts. also we want to send our words to

all the families and friends who have lost someone in these attacks. as well as to all these other people who have family members or friends who have family members or friends who have family members or friends who have been injured in the various incidents. in the press conference yesterday, we shared some information that linked the attack in the afternoon around 5pm in barcelona, we we re in the afternoon around 5pm in barcelona, we were linking this with the previous explosion in a private house in the town of alcanar. we also said this might be linked to a vehicle that had appeared in cambrils. —— cambrils. we said we thought there might be

some rented vehicles that could be linked, that was our main line of investigation yesterday. some hours after this press conference, we had this new attack in cambrils. when a vehicle ran over various citizens as well as police force that was in that area. and which injured various people. these attackers were attacked by police agents, and we wa nt attacked by police agents, and we

want to send them our war war, because even if it is yourjob to kill people it is not something that is easy to digest. —— we want to send them our warmth. these attackers were carrying some belts which look like explosives, in the end it turned out they were fake. we are now able to say that this event is also linked, so far, in the same line of investigation we started mentioning yesterday. the events with alca nar as

started mentioning yesterday. the events with alcanar as well as the attack in barcelona. and the vehicle which appeared... excuse me, have not much today. —— i have not slept much today. so, these four incidents we are so far linking them to the same group of people. at this moment, the investigation is centred in identifying the people in the building where the explosion took place. as well as the vehicle where the five people were shot yesterday in cambrils. as well as

the identification of the vehicle in barcelona. at the moment, the vehicles have all been identified so they are being inspected. obviously things keep changing. we keep getting more information, but we are working on the hypothesis that this attack —— these attacks were being prepared for a while, around this private home in alcanar. so, 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 tax than the ones that happened. —— even bigger attacks. and because of that, the attack in barcelona and the one in cambrils we re barcelona and the one in cambrils were carried out in a bit more of a rudimentary way than the one they had initially planned. this is the most relevant information we have so far from this investigation. as i said yesterday, all the police forces are collaborating on this investigation. obviously we are keeping the releva nt obviously we are keeping the relevant parties informed, such as the national audience. obviously, the police forces are not

stopping for a minute to work. we expect more information to come through, so the investigation remains open. except from some areas in the province entrepreneur, everything else in the rest of catalonia and in the city of barcelona, there are no restrictions to the free circulation of vehicles and people. i also want to ask for... it is

obviously a moment to send our warmth to the families and victims, but it is not a moment to make isolated concentrations. we obviously cannot afford any situation of insecurity, be it in barcelona or any other city. so we are asking that it is not a moment for concentrations other than obviously the ones that are controlled and have an institutional background. we have received gratefulness from citizens and we want to return it as well. we want to thank them for their civic behaviour to the people

of catalonia, as well as obviously the people of barcelona, who have suffered the most grave incident. as well as to all the public officers and agents from different departments, from security to help, to civil protection, who are working oi'i to civil protection, who are working on the streets to make sure that people have their lives back, living in dignity, freedom, and following our values as citizens. as i said, we have arrested four people. one has taken place in alcanar, as we said yesterday, as a result of the explosion. three have been done in the village of ripon. three people have moroccan nationality, one has spanish nationality. any of them has

any criminal background. links to terrorism. their profile, in general, is a young person. the youngest was 21 years old. and the others are 28, 34, and 27 years old. so, this is the information we think we have to share with you so far. so far, we are investigating whether

one of the people who were shot in cambrils might be any of the drivers, but at the moment we do not yet have any compound information. we are not able to give any information with regards to that. —— we do not yet have any confirmed information. we are analysing footprints, but we do not yet have the results of all the analysis. so we are going through the process. the driver of the barcelona attack

has not been identified yet. just to clarify. we do not have any identification made on the driver of the attack in barcelona. it could be some of the people that were shot in cambrils, but we do not you yet. —— we do not know yet. this is part of the investigation, and hopefully this will be clarified later. at the moment, as we explained, yesterday, there was a car that ran over police

agents in one of the police agents shot. the car slowed down. it was clear there was someone inside the car. first impression was that that was a consequence of car. first impression was that that was a consequence of the police agents shooting, but it was seen that actually there was not any injury from fired weapons. potentially we think there may be a second person who was taking this third person, potentially stabbed. with information we have at the

moment, we cannot link this incident to any of the other incidents. so far there is no element that can link this event to the events of alcanar, the people identified, and any of the rest that has been done so far in cambrils or the incident in cambrils. no link at all. we are working, but we do not consider a link between those. this is why we have excluded this incident from our explanation and information. the numberof explanation and information. the number of people we are investigating keeps changing. it would be a mistake to say, let's

say, if we are investigating ten people. then you fear that these ten people. then you fear that these ten people may be linked to the incidents. we have to make distinctions between people who we are investigating and people we have arrested. although of course, the numberof arrested. although of course, the number of people we are investigating is broader than the numberof investigating is broader than the number of people actually linked to the incident. the van in vic, is one

of the cars we are investigating as well. studio: so, the police letting journalists know the latest information on the investigation into the terrorist attacks in spain. saying that one of the five terrorists killed in cambrils could have been the driver of the ban which killed 13 people in barcelona. police are not confirming that yet. much more apt tpm, might now the weather with them rich. good afternoon. very mixed prospects through the week. some sunshine, and some heavy downpours. we have had a good lot of rain in scotland, some localised flooding in east scotland. as we go on through the day, the

showers have got going elsewhere, northern ireland, england and wales. some very heavy downpours thunderstorms, some hail thrown in as well perhaps. showers drifting from west to east as we go through the afternoon with some sunny breaks in between. all while persistent rainfall parts of south—east scotland. 21 degrees in london, quite a blustery day. the winds around the coast of wales and the south—west could touch gale force, further showers continuing to work across the country overnight. most easing through the early hours. 12 to 13 degrees to start on saturday. saturday mainly fine, sunday drive for many but some patchy rain towards the south—west. the headlines at tpm.

this is bbc news. the headlines. three days of mourning are declared in spain as police say they believe a network of at least eight people were behind the terror attacks that have left 14 people dead. another attack in the coastal town of cambrils saw five suspects shot dead by police and seven people injured. one later died. in barcelona police have arrested four people and a massive manhunt is under way for the 18—year—old suspected of driving the van. he's been named as moussa oukabir.