The United States (US) state department on Monday, warned Barcelona of the risk on a terrorist attack in the largest city of Spain during the holiday of Christmas Eve.
According to news reports, in a tweet, the US state department’s bureau of consular affairs on Sunday, wrote: “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.”
#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
It further tweeted: “Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, and other public areas.”
When asked about its warning, Catalonia’s regional interior minister Miquel Buch said the police “were working on this threat”. Buch further said, “We take seriously all threats, all of them are investigated.”
According to a news reports, Catalan regional police cautioned about a 30-year-old Moroccan man, who drives bus, and the police were seeking to him as that man could drive a bus into a crown in Barcelona.
Spokesperson for the regional police in Catalonia did not confirm any police news but said a “temporary reinforcement of security measures in areas of high concentration of people” was in place.
A Spanish interior ministry spokesperson said despite the US warnings, Spain maintained its terrorist alert much unchanged at a second-highest level, and however the security measures went boosted in December under the threat of attack. Spain claimed the Islamic State group to be held responsible for such attacks in over a decade in Spain.