17/08/2017 Outside Source

Hello, I'm still at the Thomas and you are watching Outside Source.

Terror on the streets of Barcelona is a van ploughed into a crowd in

the popular tourist area of Las Ramblas. The Catalan government says

at least 30 people are dead. It looked to me as if he was going

left to right hitting people at the little stands, all

sudden people were screaming and running. Catalan police say this is

a terror attack. They said two people have been arrested. They have

dismissed early reports that two gunmen were holed up in a bar in the

city possibly with a hostage. Welcome to Outside Source. We are

continuing the BBC's live coverage of the terror attack in Spain, where

Ivan has driven into crowds, killing at least 13 people. -- where a van.

This happened in Barcelona in the north-east of Spain. If I take you

into the city, you can see that we have highlighted the area where it

occurred. Las Ramblas. This is a real tourist hotspot in the heart of

Barcelona. A white van mounted the pavement and drove into pedestrians.

As we said, 13 people have been killed. We are hearing that more

than 80 others have been injured and 50 may have been hospitalised. The

numbers are changing as we report it. According to police, what

happened on Las Ramblas was that the fan entered to the north of the area

into the pedestrian zone. It sped down at a great pace, coming to a

halt about halfway down the strip, charging through people. Just to

give you an idea of how busy this always is, this picture was taken

only yesterday. It is a very popular tourist spot. Police confirmed on

Twitter they have arrested two people and said that despite earlier

reports there is no hostage situation and there are no other

gunmen in the city. That is something that was really

frightening people in Barcelona. They have released one picture, a

picture that I want to show you. This man is Driss Oukabir. He rented

the van involved in the incident. This is the Catalonia police, the

Catalan police Twitter account. They are calling it a terrorism attack.

Now, Aamer Ansar was in Barcelona and he told us about it. He spoke to

the BBC by phone. Las Ramblas is right in the heart

of the city, it is jam-packed I was about to sit down

for something to eat. Then I decided to walk

down a bit further. Next thing, literally seconds later,

heard a crashing noise. The whole street, I started

hearing screaming. Everybody started to run,

so I started to run in the direction Families were screaming, their kids,

they were taking them out Within seconds, police

officers were out. I noticed yesterday when I arrived

in the city that, you know, Guns were out,

ambulances, fire engines. You could see at the top

of the street, a sort of like vans. And then I spoke to someone

and tried to get into a shop, There was a shopkeeper

who was speaking, said I tried to ask him,

and he said that a van had driven into the crowd,

and six people were very At that point, the ambulances,

Fire Brigade, police officers were on the scene with machine guns

and guns, very quickly. They were very jittery

and people were panicking. And then we were pushed back again,

and then pushed further back. The police are absolutely

everywhere at the moment. Also listening to Spanish radio and

reading media report is Tom Burridge, former Spanish

correspondent in Spain. We have one name and picture so far of somebody

involved. We have been shown the photo of Driss Oukabir. He,

according to Spanish media, is basically a guy who was born in

Morocco, he had legal residency in Spain. There is various bits of

information coming out about him in the Spanish media. I think

everything I say from here onwards, you know, take with a bit of caution

at the moment and tell it comes out officially from official sources.

Some media are saying that this guy had spent time in prison in Spain

previously, and was released in 2012, according to some reports. An

clear from what offences. And some reports suggest that he travelled to

Morocco recently and returned to Barcelona and Catalonia not long

ago. But then another report in the Spanish newspaper is saying that

this guy turned himself into the police and is claiming that his ID

was stolen. So he is a victim too is his story possibly? That could be

his line to the police, whether or not that is true, the police are

investigating. Things are developing. What we can say for

certain is that there was a vehicle out on that next diagonal, another

main avenue in Barcelona, not far from Las Ramblas. A car broke

through a police checkpoint hours after the attack and made a on Las

Ramblas. It could be another cart. It made an attack. A different

vehicle broke through the police cordon and was tracked down to an

area outside the city, two or three kilometres to the west of Barcelona.

According to Spanish media, there was a short so bright shoot out

that, and one people have been killed -- there was a shoot out on

one person has been killed. Two people arrested, one of them was

this man, Driss Oukabir. They will be questioning him now. We are

talking about the van that ploughed through Las Ramblas and a separate

car hit the two police officers and there was a shoot out. We know that.

There is also a watch on another town outside of Barcelona. Which may

be connected, maybe not. Hello there is another vehicle. According to one

Spanish media, they are insinuating that that vehicle was involved in

the attack somehow. That it had also been rented. Now, it is definitely

the case, I think, from quite a good source of information, the Mayoress

of that town in Barcelona, it is a limit is outside of Barcelona, the

Mayoress said that vehicle is part of the investigation. Whether or not

it is will become clear in time. We have clearer figures of the scale of

this attack, and sadly how many people have been caught up in it.

They are talking about 90 people caught up in it, 80 people in

hospital, 12 people seriously injured. We were talking earlier, it

was interesting, you know, about the security. Yes, Madrid a few years

ago when I was there, there was suddenly a big change when there are

so back were other terror attacks outside of Europe -- when there were

other terror attacks. There was a heavy police presence with

impressive weaponry standing outside by Art Gallery and ring station.

That was a sea change in Spain. But the headache problem for the

security services around Europe and around the world is, how do you stop

someone a van and driving it into a crowded area is what somebody hiring

a van. We haven't got any information, Birmingham weaponry --

we haven't got any information concerning weaponry aside from a

van. That is the difficulty, it is a crowded area in the heart of the

city, a network of small streets off it. The driver of that vehicle, who

reports the fled on foot, it is unclear whether he is still at large

or whether he is one of the two people detained by the police. We

will be talking to another security expert later in this edition of

Outside Source. We should say that already in terms of intelligence

gathering, cooperation with other countries, there is of course the EU

coming together over this. The Americans, Rex Tillerson the

Secretary of State has already said we will put resources at your

disposal. It is not just one government that swings into action

when something like this happens. Definitely not. There is all of the

messages of solidarity from around the world, across Europe, very

clear. On a security level, Spain works in close conjunction with

police forces across Europe, particularly in France, obviously.

France and Belgium who have faced the Mueller threats. They work with

police here in Britain on certain issues -- similar threats. When I

was living in Spain, I left about three or four years ago, you know,

there were multiple incidents. It was quite regular that people were

being arrested at suspected of travelling to join the so-called

Islamic State group in Iraq or Syria. You know, this is an issue

that the Spanish government, the Interior Ministry there, have been

working to get on top. The interesting thing to mention is

that, you know, actually, if you step back from it and look at the

politics, Catalonia has its own government with a lot of devolved

powers. But that government is pushing to hold a referendum at the

beginning of October. They want to go ahead with it. The Spanish

governor, they are saying, you can't do that, it is illegal under the

Constitution. This saga has been rolling on for years, and it is

coming to a head in October. The Spanish president is on his way up

to Catalonia. At such a sad, tragic time there will be a big show of

solidarity between the Spanish government and the Catalan

government, who politically have been at loggerheads, and strong

statements coming up from McCain tonight, King Philippe, saying, we

are all Barcelona -- coming from the King. Let me know if anything is

coming through from your Spanish sources. A reminder of our mains

worry an Outside Source to like a fan has driven into crowds killing

13 people in Barcelona -- our main story on outside sourced... An

American tourist had just arrived in the city when the Sitak began

unfolding. -- when this attack began unfolding.

This afternoon I came in on a flight, and I was in a taxi

Maybe just a block and a half from the town.

I was just looking at the boulevard, from the back of the taxi.

And then I heard this group of people scream at the same time.

And you just don't think of this, naturally.

And then I looked to my left, and I saw a white van with its front

At first I thought it must be somebody just working and driving,

Then I realised he was going entirely too fast.

It looked to me as if he was going left-to-right,

There were people shopping, basically.

And all of a sudden people were just screaming and running.

We knew immediately, you know, naturally,

what was happening and what was going on at that moment.

And my taxi driver just started saying, oh my God, oh my God.

And then we just turned right around the corner,

And then everyone was running into any space, of course,

And they were coming into the hotel and screaming.

Interestingly, I turned around and they were starting

And that was when the hotel staff put me behind the front

They got all of us together into a ballroom,

just in the entrance of the hotel, which to me didn't

feel safe at all because there was really no...

There was nobody armed to protect the room of people.

And for better or for worse, I left the room and I said,

They gave me a key and I came upstairs.

Because I figured I would rather be one person in hundreds of rooms

As I can see everybody across at the other hotel,

everybody is just watching out of their window, watching, what now?

We are going to keep you up-to-date on what is happening in Barcelona.

We have some other stories we want to bring you on this edition of

Outside Source. In Sierra Leone, mass burials are being held for many

of the people being killed in a mudslide that took place on the

outskirts of the capital, Freetown. We know that 400 people died there.

Many of them children. And 600 others are still thought to be

missing. Martin Patience has talked to some of those who lost homes and

relatives in this disaster. I'm outside one of the offices where aid

is supposed to arrive, but people are going hungry and they do not

have sheltered. I'm with somebody from the community who was affected

by this disaster. Your name is Francis, sir. What does your

community need? We need shelter. We need shelter, food, community and

government. Everything has washed away. Some of us escapes, we managed

to escape. Has any assistance got through? There has been a trickle of

assistance, but not enough? We have assistance, but not enough. Because

we are too many. Too many, but still, we have enough in this

community, we have nowhere to go now, we don't have sheltered, I

don't think we will also arrive. I don't know what we will do. Please,

we are begging the governments, NGOs, other bodies to help us. If

not... I don't know. I don't this is a community that needs more

resistance. I saw dozens of families living in a unfinished home. People

don't have sheltered, many are going hungry, and they say their own

government, as well as others, are standing by.

STUDIO: You are watching Outside Source life from the BBC newsroom.

Terror on the streets of Barcelona is a van ploughs into a crowd in the

popular tourist area of Las Ramblas. The Catalan government says 13

people are dead. Elsewhere, around the BBC, our stories include South

African police issuing a red alert at the country's borders for

Zimbabwe's first Lady, Grace Mugabe. She is accused of hitting a

20-year-old woman over the head with an extension cord in a hotel room

near Johannesburg. Another very sad story. A ten-year-old rape victim

who was the denied permission for an abortion by the Indian Supreme Court

last month has given birth to a baby girl. The girl is not aware she has

given birth. She was told during her pregnancy that her bold was because

she had a big stone in her stomach. There is more on that on BBC Hindi.

I want to take you back to our top story. At least 13 people have been

killed in Barcelona in Spain when a van drove into a crowded forest

area. I want to just -- crowded tourist area. We have got the BBC

live page. If you are [email protected], there is much more

on the live page. For example, eyewitness reports talking about

what it was like to be there. The panic, people running, there were

hundreds and hundreds of people out there. There are also photographs

for example on the page of people lining up to give blood tonight,

because we know that at least 50 people were hospitalised. A lot more

for you there and we are keeping on top of it online. Some updates. We

are across all of the news sources. We have had this from the Foreign

Minister of Belgium. Among the 13 who died it is believed one Belgian

national was killed in this van attack. The Prime Minister, Mariano

Rajoy, has said he is en route to Barcelona and he will coordinate

efforts to reinforce security. There is not only an investigation going

on, people ask Ed, they are very worried about what is happening

there and what could still happen -- people are worried. Former Spain

correspondent Tom Ridge, for people who are just joining us, I have said

that 13 people dead and 50 hospitalised. But we have got a

number of different stories? So, the main terrorist attack in Las

Ramblas, such a crowded area this time of year. They are talking about

90 people being affected, but we can say 80 in hospital. So 80 people

injured, potentially. 15 of those in a serious condition. As you say, 13

people dead. Police are saying they have so far arrested two people. One

of them is this man called Driss Oukabir, who, according to Spanish

media, rented the van. There is one confusing report of him claiming he

handed himself in to the police and had his ID stolen. Let's see whether

that is borne out to be true or not. The identity of the other person in

police custody we are unclear about. Are we from Las Ramblas we have got

Diagonal, a main avenue running through Barcelona, eight Avenue in

terms of traffic there. Las Ramblas has traffic down the edge of it but

it is a pedestrianised area. Diagonal, a car, hours after the

official attack, it went through a police cordon or checkpoint which

had been set up following the attack. That car was followed to an

area outside of Barcelona west of the city by a couple of kilometres.

According to Spanish media, there was a shoot out there and one

suspect was killed. We are seeing live pictures from Barcelona now. If

you are there, you are still in, you don't know what is happening,

obviously there are still a lot of security around, Tom? Yes, the main

tourism organisation there is saying about trying to find hotels for

freak if people are basically stranded anywhere. There is a lot of

lockdown in various parts of the city. I've been listening to Spanish

radio. A huge police presence on the streets. Loads of tourists out for a

night in the city on holiday, caught up. The height of the summer season.

Barcelona is alive at this time of year. It is a great city, I'm sure

loads of people know it. It's got a really great and Brazil. Las Ramblas

is one of the hotspots. It does appear that that has been targeted

deliberately -- it is a really great area. I have discussed this early in

the programme, what can be done, can it? Ultimately up until now we only

have confirmed that the only weapon in this attack at the moment is a

van that was rented. You know, and that is the headache for the

security services. After geese and Westminster Bridge, you know, in

Brussels, we have always had this, is Asian -- after Nice. -- we have

always had this conversation. This is the headache for the

counterterrorist authorities. What the security services in Spain are

trying to establish is the number of people who are involved in this

attack. At the moment we have got two playbook in police custody, but

you can't read into that too much at this stage -- two people. It could

be that those people are released and found not to be connected with

the attack. But, you know, there seems to be some anecdotal evidence

that points towards more than one person involved. You know, we've got

reports of the driver of the van fleeing the scene on foot. We've got

this incident on the edge of Barcelona where one person is shot

dead. We don't know whether that is the same person or not. We also have

a van in thick, tens of kilometres outside of Barcelona, apparently

being investigated as part of the attack -- this van in Vic. The

information is coming from the Mayor of that town. There seems to be

various strands of the investigation. The police in

Barcelona and Catalonia saying their investigation is very much the lack

of. Thanks, Tom, for keeping us up-to-date -- is very active. We

will tell you when we get any more developments. We are careful to tell

you what we know and what we don't know. Even though we are going to

give across the situation in Barcelona, we're going to get you

across some of our other big stories this hour. One of which is Donald

Trump, Charlottesville, where the fallout from the violence in

Virginia at the weekend continues will stop there was a tweet sent by

Donald Trump today, which rubbed salt in the wounds reopened by the

death and injuries in Virginia at the weekend. What he said was that

it was that, in his words, to see the history and culture...

For some people, that is an incendiary tweet, because Donald

Trump is referring to the age-old debate over relics of the proslavery

southern Confederacy, the side that was defeated in America's support

war. That started the trouble in Charlottesville, an organised

protest against the removal of the statue of a Confederate general.

There are dozens more modern units like this around the United States.

In fact, there is a map in the New York Times, this shows the location

of some of them. The marks in red show you where statues have been

removed from public grounds. The marks in grey showing where statues

and monuments are due to be taken down, taken out of public sight. We

can go to Anthony Zurcher, our correspondent in Washington.

Anthony, I don't know if I've quite explain properly just how dramatic

that tweet was, that fresh intervention from the president?

Yes, as you mentioned, the removal of the statue was the reason for the

march in Charlottesville on Saturday. It's why there was that

torchlight parade of white nationalists, white supremacist, who

were taunting, blood and soil, and "dues will not replace us". It led

to violent protests and the death of one of the counter-productive. --

one of the counter protesters. A few days later, Donald Trump essentially

in Tost the reason for the march, the argument that the marchers were

making. It is coming down with both feet on one side of this debate at a

time when, as you mentioned, nerves are still very war. -- very raw. The

bloodshed has only recently passed. It is a pretty remarkable action for

a president usually at times like these, presidents and that you as

some sort of a cohesive bonding of the wounds, bringing the nation

together. That is not what Donald Trump is done here. It is a

decidedly different way to respond to what they tragic national event.

Anthony, I'm going to show our viewers with a minute left on this

programme a tweet from sensitive Cullen -- representative Cullen, a

Democratic politician, saying he will be introducing articles of

impeachment against Donald Trump. He said there are no good Nas is all

Klansmen. You expect the Democrats to be outraged, and is opposed since

Republicans are in control of the house of Congress, that won't go

very far, but it is symbolic and interesting. It is symbolic, but it

is not going to get anywhere as long as there is no Bayern from the

republican party. And the party has never impeached a member of their

own party as president in the history of the United States. For a

republican to turn on the president would be unprecedented. I think we

are a long way from any sort of impeachment proceedings gaining

traction. Anthony, thanks for bringing us the latest update from

Washington, where this story does seem to keep moving every day. We

are watching how the story is moving in Barcelona tonight, what is

happening with the casualties there after that shocking terrorist

attack. Tuesday with us from the next edition of Outside Source in

just a few minutes. -- do stay with us for the next edition of Outside

Source.