18.08.2017 - 01:21
One woman and two young men from Australia are among the dozens of people injured in the Las Ramblas terror attack in Barcelona that has claimed up to 16 lives.
The woman, from NSW, is in a Barcelona hospital in a serious but stable condition, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has confirmed.
The two young men, believed to be from Melbourne’s western suburbs, were also caught up in the deadly van rampage.
They have told Australian consular staff that they were injured, but have since returned to their hotel and plan to get medical treatment in the morning,
“They’re in direct contact with consular staff. They have advised they were directly affected,” Ms Bishop said.
She said consular officials were seeking more information on the woman who was hospitalised.
A woman, known only as Raelene, told Melbourne radio station 3AW that her son arrived in Barcelona to meet up with his friends only to discover they had been injured in the attack.
“He’s got to the hotel … and said to the lady, ‘I’m here to book a hotel next to my mates,” Raelene said.
“She said, ‘Your mates have been involved in a terrorist attack, they’re injured’.”
Meanwhile, Australian tourist Susan McLean has told of the horror that unfolded moments after a van ploughed into crowds.
Ms McLean was about 100 metres from the scene as the van zigzagged down one of the city’s busiest avenues, mowing down pedestrians and leaving bodies strewn across the ground.
“All of a sudden there was this tidal wave of people running from both Placa de Catalunya and Las Ramblas towards us screaming, crying and with absolute terror etched on their faces,” she told Channel Nine on Friday.
“Initially we couldn’t hear anything other than all these people running towards us. Several of them were calling ‘gun, gun’, so first of all we thought someone had been shot.
“Then they just kept sort of – it was all in Spanish. It was very difficult to understand but they were sort of pushing us into shops.”
Ms McLean, who was separated from her husband in the panic, said the scene reminded her of Melbourne’s January 20 Bourke Street tragedy, when a man in a car mowed down pedestrians. Six died and up to 30 were injured.
“That was quite scary because I wasn’t sure where he was but the shopkeepers were great. They pulled everyone inside and put the shutters down,” she said.
“My first reaction was the Bourke Street [rampage], because that is what it reminded me of, the vision of people fleeing in just such terror.”
Australian Gil Van Der Venne told 3AW he saw the attack unfold from his hotel balcony.
“We’re looking over the balcony … and there it is all happening in front of you,” he said.
“You hear this screaming, the mayhem.
“There was at least five bodies that I saw, at least three of them are still there now with body bags, so you’d imagine they’ve passed.
“The van, I believe, had probably travelled about three-quarters down Las Ramblas.”
Melbourne holidaymaker Julia Monaco told Channel Nine police on the scene suddenly ordered her and her family inside a shop just across from Las Ramblas as the attack happened.
“In a split second it all kind of changed and everyone just started running and panicking and running for their lives and crying and screaming and we were forced back into the store, told to get away from the windows and to get low on the ground.
“We were huddled at the very back of the store lying flat on if floor and were in that position for about 20 minutes with no real understanding of what was happening other than it was incredibly serious.”
– with AAP
Barcelona terror attack: What we know so far
Barcelona: 13 dead, two men arrested after van mows down pedestrians in Las Ramblas
