Spain launched a sweeping anti-terrorism operation on Friday, shooting dead five would-be attackers and arresting four after a suspected militant drove a van into crowds in Barcelona, killing 13 people and wounding scores. 


Daesh (ISIS) said the perpetrators had been responding to its call for action by carrying out Thursday's rampage along Barcelona's most famous avenue, which was thronged with holiday-makers enjoying an afternoon stroll at the peak of the tourist season. 


Bodies, many motionless, were left strewn across the avenue and authorities said the toll of dead, which included several children, could rise, with more than 100 injured. 


Hours later in the early hours of Friday, as security forces hunted for the van's driver, police said they killed five attackers in Cambrils, a town south of Barcelona, to thwart a separate attack using explosive belts. 


A judicial source said investigators believed a cell of at least eight people, possibly 12, may have been involved in the Barcelona attack and Cambrils plot and that it was planning to use gas canisters. 


The injured and dead came from 34 different countries, the Catalan regional government said, ranging from France and Germany to Pakistan and the Philippines. Spanish media said several children were killed. 


The Barcelona attack was the deadliest in Spain since March 2004, when militants placed bombs on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and wounding more than 1,800

Source: NNA