Suspected Barcelona attacker shot by police

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - Spanish police on Monday declared they shot a man who was identified as the attacker who drove a van into a Barcelona crowd last week, killing 13.

Spanish police who did not reveal the attacker's identity and did not specify if he is dead said the suspect appeared to be wearing an explosive belt.

"The suspect wore what appeared to be an explosive belt. He has been shot down," police said in an official tweet.

They said only that a bomb squad was using a robot to approach the man's body.

Some Spanish media, citing investigative sources, said police had shot dead 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub, on the run since Thursday when he drove at high speed into heavy crowds strolling along Barcelona's most famous avenue, Las Ramblas.

The president of Kurdistan Region and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in separate statements condemned the attack in Spain.

“The people of Kurdistan, who are victims of terror themselves and are at the forefront of the fight against terror, are sympathetic to the city of Barcelona,” President Masoud Barzani said in a statement.

Echoing the President's statement about the Kurdish fight against terror, the KRG extended condolences to the victims of the attack.

"To prevent such atrocities from reoccurring, the international community needs to increase action and cooperation," the KRG statement read.

The incident in the northeastern Catalan city was Spain’s deadliest attack since 2004 when al-Qaeda-inspired bombers killed 192 people in coordinated attacks in Madrid.

The Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia reported late on Friday afternoon that the police were hunting for four suspects.

It named them as 17-year-old Moussa Oukabir - the suspect thought to have driven the van along Las Ramblas - Mohamed Hychami, 24, Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, and Said Aallaa, 18.

All live in or close to the Catalonian town of Ripoll. Oukabir’s age has also been given elsewhere as 18.

The attack took place during Barcelona’s tourist season, a time when at least 11 million people visit the city every year.