A compilation of powerful video images, previously unreleased, was seen by the court in the sixth session of the trial for the 2017 Barcelona and Cambrils terror attacks this Wednesday. We warn of the violent and distressing nature of some images included in this information, which reproduces the two videos that were viewed today at the trial.
For the first time, images have been shown of the murderous van attack on Barcelona's pedestrian avenue, the Rambla, and the subsequent getaway of the driver of the van, Younes Abouyaaqoub, as he fled across Barcelona and out of the city, before eventually being shot down in the rural locality of Subirats. They are compiled into two videos showing the Barcelona terror attack and the driver's escape, presented as evidence by the Mossos d'Esquadra police to reconstruct the facts and identify the terrorist.
Abouyaaqoub travelled more than 50 kilometres on foot during his flight, after he had left Barcelona and then abandoned the Ford Focus he stole near Barcelona's Avinguda Diagonal. The terrorist first ran from the Rambla via the city's Boqueria market. He then passes by the Universitat Ramon Llull, and makes his way uptown and inland, via the streets of Provença, Entença and Numancia, crosses Travessera de les Corts next to the Mossos d'Esquadra police station, and reaches the city's Zona Universitària, where he is filmed by the cameras of the Pharmaceutical Faculty.
WARNING: Violent video images. Due to their distressing nature, some parts of the images have been covered.
The terrible rampage caused 15 deaths and over 140 injuries in the Rambla. The terrorist then killed a 16th person in his flight from Barcelona: after reaching a car park area in Zona Universitària, he surprised a Catalan man, Pau Pérez, stabbing and murdering him before stealing his car, a white Ford Focus.
The second video compilation shown in the trial today, and reproduced below, begins with some images of this stolen car. Younes Abouyaaqoub left the vehicle in Sant Just Desvern, still inside metropolitan Barcelona, a couple of hours after the Rambla attack.
Then, as the video images show, he walked over 50 kilometres over the next four days. Video images on August 20th, three days after the attacks, show him at a gas station in Cervelló, 25km from where he left the car. Then, another 12 kilometres to Sant Cugat ses Garrigues, where cameras catch him changing his clothes, and then he walked another 10 kilometres to the Ca l'Escudé farmhouse in Subirats. After police were alerted, it was three kilometres from that house where the Mossos d'Esquadra shot him. We warn again of the harshness of the images in this second video, in which Younes Abouyaaqoub’s body is seen.
The videos were shown during the witness testimony of Mossos d'Esquadra officers who appeared in the trial today.
The trial sessions are structured according to the different periods and locations involved the attacks. Last week, graphic images of terrorists preparing explosives were shown. Tuesday's session was dedicated to the explosion at the house in Alcanar where the preparations for the original attack plan was being made. Today, the mass shooting on the Rambla was the focus of the interrogations, and this will continue on Thursday.
Map showing the terrorist's approximate route after the 2017 Rambla attack. There are four black pins, from right to left: 1) The point where the driver abandoned the van on the Rambla and fled on foot; 2) Zona Universitària, where he murdered a man and stole his car; 3) The point where he abandoned the car; 4) The point where he was killed by Mossos police, four days later.