A van drove onto a sidewalk in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas district on Thursday, killing at least 13 and injuring dozens more in what Spanish officials have called a terrorist attack.
The police announced the episode on its Twitter account at approximately 5:30 p.m. local time. The site of the episode, a pedestrian-only street, was cordoned off, and stores were closed. Local law enforcement made one arrest and urged civilians to stay in place while they assisted in evacuating the area.
The National Police Force, the national police of Spain, urged people to notify their family of their safety through Facebook’s Safety Check feature to prevent telephone lines from crashing.
The civilian death toll rose to 14 following another van-related incident Friday in the nearby town of Cambrils where additional attackers attempted to detonate explosive vests, according to reports. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said one American was among those killed in Thursday's attack.
Police killed six alleged attackers in the Cambrils incident. Law enforcement conducted raids in nearby towns following the initial attack and made four arrests. The Islamic State's media wing, Amaq News Agency, reported the attackers were "soldiers of the Islamic State."
Records indicated that no IU undergraduate students are currently studying in Spain, but two are scheduled to travel to Barcelona in the coming weeks, Associate Vice President for Overseas Study Kathleen Sideli said in an email. Three Maurer School of Law students arrived in the city the same day safely and have been in touch with administrators.
The most recent information available on the Office of Overseas Study’s website said that Spain was the second-most visited country among IU students who studied abroad in the 2014-15 school year. It was the third-most visited study-abroad country nationally.
“IU students tend to study abroad in larger numbers in the spring semester rather than the fall semester,” Sideli said. “We have seen no slowdown of applications.”
This story may be updated as developments are made.
Jesse Naranjo
