and you know everyone still waiting yeah there's still a lot of phone calls going on here and everyone through waiting for sort of the local have turned to speak and i think they're actually supposed to speak quite soon so everyone's sort of just waiting for for more information at this moment we can see that police is still tense and everything is still sealed off so we're really just waiting here because the local media in spain reported that one suspect had been shot dead in the standoff we also heard not directly but i've been reading that witnesses heard gun shots after the crash that's not being confirmed but it would stand that that is what happened if it did have police come out with any i know you mentioned that there was going to be some kind of a media conference coming up but have police confirmed anything to do with yet. no no we haven't been able to confirm yet whether this was actually the case no. ok

so that is the situation as it stands at nothing just looking around you know from what you're seeing are there are a lot of people trying to get back into homes or are locals for instance who live in the residential area even though it's a very busy tourist region can people get back out all are they completely being kept out. yeah a lot of people are still being kept out around the neighborhood in the neighborhood and a lot of people are still not able to access their homes some are even out waiting for their hotels and just waiting for directions really and not really knowing. when they're going to be able to get back to stay to no one at the moment is that thank you very much natalie again journalist local journalist from barcelona giving us a sense of what's happening there and what occurred in the aftermath of. ok the latest developments and our breaking news story welcome to. r t by the way if you're just

joining us our sole on breaking news story this hour authorities say thirteen people have been killed over fifty injured after a van plowed into a crowd of pedestrians in the center of barcelona one suspect has been arrested we believe another according to local reports has been shot dead in a standoff with police now the aspect of by that is we don't know whether they were people in the initial car roaming attack or perhaps in a getaway vehicle that came afterwards to try and collect the attackers we do not know who is who in the attack happened on this street last tourist area to run five in the evening local time and we're going to show you quite disturbing pictures right of the aftermath please be warned.

let's take a look now at just what we're speaking about it's about a kilometer wide streets a lot if you would have been on it before some of you perhaps live there. on the van reportedly drove five hundred meters down in the pedestrian ised stretch of road which is in the center cars can drive either side of the road it is quite a wide area police also say that fifty six people have now been taken to hospital after that attack we don't know how many are critical and we had been hearing for a long time that one person had been killed valis now moved to thirteen so perhaps we hope not but more fatalities as local reports are saying are expect. people are

being advised to avoid this city center state side for a number of hours as well we did not know if the suspect was the loose whether he was involved he or she were involved in a hostage situation in a restaurant at all. does not seem to be police opera handed cording two reports shot dead another we are waiting for cation. so this is the scene we're looking at in the hours just immediately after the shots and. street a busy tourist area this is in happier times walked the area looks like you're seeing there full of shops full of bars cafes just off to the side cathedrals which are visited by millions of people every year one aspect to this as well it links the main square of the city is important because according to reports

the vonne which rammed into the people turned from the square one that they. all into the pavement on. the streets. ok well we talked to a number of people on this we'll get their testimony a little bit later on what we know in this but i believe michael maloof a former pentagon official on security on willis joins us now from washington d.c. michael great to have you bach on a program the aspect of this is perhaps that. could be surprising to some is that it's happening in spain the last major terror instance we saw in spain was back in two thousand and four in the madrid metro i'm not talking about domestic terrorism but islamic terrorism international terrorism spain is not involved in

any middle east conflict yet this is happening here your thoughts on why barcelona has been targeted. well. i don't mean to contradict you but syrian is not surprising and i'll tell you why back in february of this year isis issued a threat saying that they were going to launch attacks against terrorists in spain at tourist prominent tourist areas and then a month later the british foreign office put out a report warning. that isis was planning attacks in. tourist areas and barcelona is one of the areas where. millions of brits flock to every year for vacation and so and then in in about and the reason why and then what happened after that is that tourist

agencies british tourist agencies began to hire s.a.'s former s.a.'s types to patrol. undercover the beach is reminiscent of what occurred in tunisia in two thousand and fifteen when thirty british tourists were killed by a lone gunman just spraying the beach and but. and then in may of this year a june of this year rather a isis cell was busted up in madrid along with in britain it was they didn't receive much press at all so this is not surprising and i would also add that spain historically has been a jihad asst goal first with al qaeda with way here either a leader of al-qaeda and now isis claiming they won a dollars us dollars back and that is the old name they gave to spain and they want that back because when they say back that that means that they the muslims occupied

spain from seven eleven to fourteen ninety two they regarded as their own so spain is is. literally target of for them and it has been now what i think has happened is that everybody focused on the beaches they were not expecting a van which is a normal isis approach these days and it's been a proven means of killing a lot of people with and without being detected one of the aspects you mention a very interesting thing is that it may be the targets of attacks like this may not just be directly countries directly involved perhaps in the middle east process but also could be places where tourists are going from countries that are involved as you say the event on fronts now that has mustard from the fake ations right around the world doesn't it that maybe if there is no the new modus operandi for terrorist

. well as i said back in january isis issued a threat that they were going to be attacking tourist centers in spain i mean it can't be any clearer than that so and of course authorities have been looking for it and and tourists agencies have been trying to take certain spic security precautions but you can't cover the whole area and of course what you tell me what is really ready for you so you have this michel. who's ever ready for something like that britain got hit twice three times in very very short very short order. predominantly in under certain similar circumstances and once in a in a crowded stadium so it's you're never fully prepared for something like this unless you've got some very good intelligence and clearly they didn't have it on the aspect that we're seeing increasingly as well are these vonne car attacks that

are happening very low maintenance very easy to carry. does that also have ramifications for other cities thinking well hold on we simply can't allow any cars any kind of motorized vehicles into our area we're going to have to have more areas more bollards and we were looking at a different scene here just a different picture when we think of busy tourist areas. yeah well they weren't expecting the attack to occur in the center of barcelona but. it there has been talk since the british attacks of maybe cordon off certain areas to cars that still hasn't happened particularly over. london bridge for example where a car a car just came up to mow down a bunch of people and then went on to parliament and the terrorist killed a police officer before he was actually stopped so it's very very difficult to do that you don't know unless you have good intelligence and this and frankly

intelligence like this is very hard to come by. to to be able to prevent this kind of thing it can be any vehicle you look on any street in and any large city you see all kinds of trucks who knows what they're for they could be obviously very legitimate ones and some could be bombs that was used in oklahoma city back in. ninety five one thousand nine hundred five that took off the side of a federal building you just don't know and and so consequently i think. peak seasons like this authorities may need to begin to coordinate and to in order to minimize vehicle problems begin to cordon off certain areas very popular areas of towns to. vehicle traffic it's just hard to know where this leaves authorities and cities that don't last areas we don't know do it

for pentagon official michael maloof bring us up to date with that sorry mike go ahead you just want to make a final point. yeah i was just going to say this is going to go on more and more i think that that isis in targeting tourists like this can make this opportunity points of opportunity for them and the whole idea is to bring on fear and that's what people need to overcome and they need to be able to get on with their life michael maloof former pentagon official thank you for that ok latest developments now on our breaking news story this is what we know to date cattle on off already say thirteen people have been killed over fifty injured after a van into a crowd of pedestrians in the center of barcelona one suspect has been arrested another according to local reports has been shot dead in a standoff with police officers have named the man who rented the vehicle grabby gris. the attack happened in the last what i'm less tourist areas around five in

the evening local time please be warned the images we're about to show you are highly disturbing. so you can hear in the street where everything is happening and i was resting to five pm and i finally i decided to go outside the hotel just to see around and then i was just a huge crowd of people coming all around me running and screaming some people crying and i'm like what's happening what's happening and one girl she was like screaming and crying she's like i don't know we don't no one knows what's happening we're just all going to work this way and then some people came inside and i was like so worried then you see like all around me like the police and then like you grow there they're all like waiting the police is their own. we're all we know what kind of injuries when. a lot of people died on the street it's crazy it's crazy now here i don't see anything here i don't see any of that but it's like like behind us right just behind the street. ok to discuss the latest on the terror attack in

barcelona joining me now live in the shooter once again daniel hawkins. what do we know. details of the skit she in the midst of the panic that must have occurred in the aftermath of the attack we know that a van ford escort hired by and was used to drive down that avenue at high speed as much as sixty to eighty kilometers an hour down the one point two kilometer long boulevard swerving left and right as it drove to hit as many people as possible the latest casualty figures as confirmed by the interior ministry were thirteen dead as many as fifty injured many of them seriously taken to local hospitals now initially there were reports of a live hostage situation ongoing in a turkish cafe just around the corner from where the attack took place the police have now confirmed that is not the case in terms of the attackers we have one arrested and one dead meaning this was not a lone wolf attack as we saw for example in the nice attack of summer last year or

the westminster bridge attack in london of march this year as well that were at least two if not more attackers involved one of them has now been arrested their identity of one of them you mentioned earlier a passport discovered in the van a spanish passport of a man of origin so that's about as far as we know there now condolences and condemnation of been coming in from across the world the u.s. president donald trump to resume a i'm going to call record boris johnson a whole host of politicians from across the world expressing their anger condemnation this attack as well now in terms of the scene here the central boulevard of course where this attack took place that runs as we said about a kilometer. long that this sort of this time of year at this time of evening it would have been packed very densely with tourists from all over europe all over the world that's what would have been chosen as a soft target effectively for this attack there's very little the police would have

been able to do to stop it however the quick response of course has to be commended in need. closing one of the suspects and arresting another one there and is still arriving on scene about an hour to an hour and a half of the attack took place that gives us some indication as to the scale of the attack of course as well now just looking back on the tactics used of course to get a commercial large heavy vehicle driven at speed into high crowds this isn't sadly the first time we've sat here together about covered such incidents the last one was in charlottesville in in the united states that we saw in the the anti-fascist verse is the white supremacist the you know at the right protest as it was called by many we've see them across the middle east in jerusalem in egypt but most notably they've hit close to home in europe of course the need to attack with mention. london as well we can take

a look back at the timeline of such attacks just now in fact. i. think. i was. that we've also had word from president vladimir putin of russia saying that this terrorist attack confirms the need for a united effort to tackle international terrorism and also be interesting to see actually what does happen in the aftermath of course france one of the neighboring

countries there have had a state of emergency for quite some time. the battle plan attacks the other attacks on police and then the nice attack as well that's an ongoing state of emergency with troops the ploy on to the streets the u.k. had a similar situation very briefly with armed soldiers deployed on to the streets as well as an additional buffalo to the police resources as well in the wake of the london bridge attack that took place now whether this will happen in spain or not we just don't know spain as you mentioned earlier with the guest does have a history of domestic terrorism with. cattle and separatists as well the last terror attack that was an international fundamentalist islamist attack in spain took place i believe in two thousand and four f. i'm not mistaken at all qaeda attack on the metro which killed infinitely more people than this one that led to a fundamental shift in the spain's foreign policy and although as one of our guests

mentioned earlier terrorist groups have been threatening to target european capitals european centers for quite some time the choice of spain. as a bit of a surprise given that many of these other countries involved were to some extent to one extent or another involved france most notably in interventions in libya in syria etc so certainly this may come as a surprise to some but it remains to be seen how that investigation goes who will claim responsibility the identity of the perpetrator cetera we will find out in the coming hours and days. news line just something coming in catalonia as regional president has given a casualty toll op date as we know twelve dead but the number hospitalized house going up to eighty after the barcelona attack and not that's the big aspect here isn't it how many of those people could be in a critical condition after this stage it could rise quite dramatically we of course

hope it does not done hawkins thank you for that extensive op ed a lot of background to the. and all right let's just indeed wrap up what we know if you're joining us here in r t international welcome to the program we have got one sole breaking news story this hour what has occurred in barcelona authorities say no a dozen people have been killed as we're mentioning eighty injured after a volley plowed into a crowd of pedestrians in the center of bar so low no the busiest area in barcelona it must be said two suspects have been arrested officers have named who rented the vehicle used to us one my grabby drifts a year we are waiting on details all of them coming up the attack happened in the last few romulus tourist areas around five in the evening local time please be warned the images were about to show you are our lead story.

or pedestrians not where on the street when the attack happened run for shelter in nearby shell sunday in cafes and also and notably at a large cathedral nearby shop owners thing closed their stores covered their windows to protect those inside because at that stage we did not know where the people where who fled the scene from the attack. we spoke to a person who was staying in a hotel in the center of barcelona who told us what she saw in the aftermath of the time. so i can hear you know that in this street where everything is happening. i

was resting to five pm and i five pm i decided to go outside of that just to see. around and then i see a huge crowd of people coming all around me running and screaming some people crying and i'm like what's happening what's happening and one girl she was like screaming and crying she's like i don't know we don't no one knows what's happening we're just all going to work this way and then some people came in and i was like then you see like all around me like the police and then like you know they're. all like waiting the police is their own. we always know what's going to happen like injuries when. a lot of people on the street it's crazy it's crazy now here i don't see anything here i don't see any of that but it's like like behind us right just behind this street. where we can cross live to chris phillips chris is the former head of the national counterterrorism security office chris always a pleasure having you on the program spain know the target why do you think that

is if it is confirmed to be a terror attack. we must we mustn't get into the idea that this is a one country to country problem this is this is a worldwide problem and it's right across it is literally right across the world from indonesia philippines through the whole of europe this is a problem that we been facing for a long time now the fact that attacks haven't taken place in spain recently is quite surprising bear in mind the number of attacks that have happened in europe but unfortunately it's something that we're going to have to face for quite a few years to come so you think there is no particular link to all this some of the guests have been speaking to earlier are sure my saying that perhaps it's happening in countries where there are tourists of countries that are involved in the middle east conflict britain or france for instance have a lot of tourist britain particularly in. barcelona in nice could be an aspect

to this we don't know of course at this. well of course what you what we've seen that really is iconic so it's been attacked not necessarily territories right deliberately in the tourist however of course that's a nice byproduct for the for the terrorists because what they want to do is they want to bring in the media from the whole of the world into places because all the places that have been attacked if you think about it if you've been to berlin you've probably been to the christmas market if you've been to nice you've definitely been to the promenade and if you've been to barcelona you would have definitely been to las ramblas so the whole point of this is is to cause fear and terrorize people and this is exactly the tactic and it works of course and it's a very difficult thing to stop kinetic attacks like this very very difficult to prevent and what.

the national weather service in sterling virginia has issued a special memory warning for chesapeake bay from sandy point to north beach maryland chester river to queenstown maryland chop tank river to cambridge maryland in the middle chop tank river eastern be until four forty five pm three twenty two pm a strong thunderstorm was located over annapolis moving east at ten knots gusting thirty three knots was reported in annapolis recently hazard wind gusts thirty four knots or greater source radar indicated impact person small craft could be brought overboard by suddenly higher winds and waves capsizing their vessel locations impacted crude parson island can't narrows bridge chester river eastern b. greenbury point academy caring b. highland beach seven river room koch bloody point light chesapeake bay bridge

matter peak thomas point light poplar island shadyside annapolis and deal. that's quite a low number for the types of attacks we see in other countries particularly in syria and iraq and what we've got to do in the west particularly is make sure that these vehicles don't have bombs in them because when a bomb goes off then a lot more people don't just put your expertise chris give us a sense of hope police security forces actually go up by closing in a live scene to ensure safety because in this particular area i mentioned it would be particularly difficult because you've got a lot of tourists but you've also got a lot of residents who live in the nearby region. yeah there's a benefit to this story in the it would have been very well policed anyone who's been to those around us would know that it is actually a bit of a crime story high crime street and there are police officers everywhere so when something like this happens there is no shortage of officers to deal but of course

what you then trying to do is to is to put basically this into an island site so that you can control it and then allow people out who are of course often victims or witnesses but actually contain the van because at that time they still had one of two suspects running around and also a van that could have been full of explosives so you have to think of all these things and balance them up and let people move away from the scene because you want distance but try not to allow the suspect to leave with them chris just unused lying coming into us here at the news agency has reported that isael has no taking responsibility for the attack in barcelona we had been speck in possibly about all different types of terrorism maybe domestic but it seems that isis has said it is us those that go with what you are thinking. yeah absolutely i mean

they would do wouldn't they why wouldn't they they can just say anything because effectively al baghdadi a few months ago put out a notice to anyone that might be interested that you should use vehicles to attack people so whether they knew or had any links whatsoever to isis is immaterial they can say that they were they influence and they were part of. and we do have to bear in mind that this problem is going to get worse and i think everyone needs to really think through what they do how they travel and cities do need to get their head around protecting these iconic sites because unfortunately with isis being squeezed and the rise again of al qaida these terrorist attacks are going to continue and probably get worse yeah it's just that he summed up their. of course take responsibility what we do need to state the news agency is part of the propaganda all of this is well we need to just say that is where that information is coming from chris philips former head of the national counterterrorism security

office in the u.k. always good to get your expertise. and ok let's keep the live in else going on find out what we know more with our tease emily sue really what we have been hearing here is a lot of international leaders condemning the attack as to be expected what has been said. well you know in condemnation of what happened in barcelona today really has been pouring in from all over the world will start with russia the russian president vladimir putin he has come out and said that the terrorist incident in barcelona shows the need for a united international efforts to fight terrorism and over in the u.k. the prime minister theresa may she tweeted saying that the u.k. stands with spain against terror and meanwhile her foreign secretary boris johnson also tweeted concerned and saddened by barcelona attack our thoughts are with those affected doing all the.