800 Checkpoints After Barcelona, One Man Still at Large

Radical imam suspected of leading terror cell that carried out attack
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 21, 2017 1:03 AM CDT
Search for Barcelona Suspect Expands Across Europe
This is an undated handout photo sourced from social media of 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub.   (Social media via AP)

The net has widened in the search for Younes Abouyaaqoub, the Moroccan national now believed to have been the van driver in Thursday's terrorist attack in Barcelona. Officials say that despite 800 police checkpoints in the region, the 22-year-old remains at large and may have fled to another European country, the Guardian reports. The BBC reports that CCTV footage shows a man believed to be Abouyaaqoub walking away from the scene of the attack wearing sunglasses. Police are investigating whether the suspect stabbed a man to death and stole his car around 90 minutes after the attack. Authorities believe Abouyaaqoub is the last member of a 12-person terror cell still at large.

Five suspects were shot dead by police after a second attack in the town of Cambrils, four have been arrested, and two were killed in a blast in the town of Alcanar on Thursday, apparently while preparing explosives for an attack. The Wall Street Journal reports that Abdelbaki Es Satty, an imam in the Spanish town of Ripoll, where most of the suspects lived, is suspected of radicalizing the group and plotting the attacks. Police say Satty was apparently killed in the explosion in Alcanar. Investigators say that at the site, they have found the remains of 120 gas canisters, which the group apparently planned to use in a bigger attack. (A California man was among the 13 people killed in Barcelona.)

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