Ramming Attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, Spain
Just before 17:00 local time on Thursday August 17, 2017, a rented white Fiat van plowed into a crowd outside of Placa de Catalunya metro station and continued down the pedestrian boulevard of Las Ramblas, a popular tourist destination in Barcelona, killing 13 people and injuring close to 100 others.
It recently came to light that Barcelona security chiefs rejected calls made last year in the aftermath of ramming attacks in Berlin and Nice to install barriers at Las Ramblas to protect pedestrians from a ramming attack. The Catalan interior ministry and police chiefs recommended the installation of massive bollards aimed at protecting the boulevard. Specifically, the recommendation called for ‘strategic points which could be targets for terrorists attacks’ to be ‘isolated either with physical objects of with police officers.’
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