The State Department on Sunday issued an alert to Americans in Spain, urging them to exercise “heightened caution” if they are in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona because of the potential for a terrorist attack during Christmas and New Year’s Day.
“Exercise heightened caution around areas of vehicle movement, including buses, in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona during Christmas and New Year’s. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, and other public areas,” the agency said on one of its official Twitter accounts.
#Spain: Exercise heightened caution around areas of vehicle movement, including buses, in the Las Ramblas area of Barcelona during Christmas and New Year’s. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, and other public areas. pic.twitter.com/MPGiZwMwxq
— Travel – State Dept (@TravelGov) December 23, 2018
Las Ramblas was the site of a major terrorist attack in August 2017 when a member of a terrorist cell drove a van into pedestrians, killing 14 people and injuring at least 130 others. There was another attack in nearby Chambrilis hours later.
The Islamic State later claimed responsibility.
The regional Mossos d’Esquadra police declined to comment Monday to the Associated Press on the alleged threat, saying that security had been heightened “as part of a previously arranged anti-terrorist vigilance for the Christmas period.”
Spain’s Interior Ministry said that the level of anti-terror alert in the country remains at the second-highest level, unchanged since 2015.
Regional police are looking for a man identified as B. L., 30, from Casablanca, Morocco.
According to El País, a daily newspaper in Spain, the man is in possession of a bus driver’s license and has a police record in Spain for insulting a member of the Civil Guard at Malaga airport in 2006. Police are currently carrying out inspections on bus and minibus drivers in the center of Barcelona and monitoring car rental companies, though there is no indication that he is in Spain.
Police will also reinforce their presence in Las Ramblas over the holidays, adding extra officers and carrying out more inspections.
