SPANISH POLICE HUNT RINGLEADER OF BARCELONA AND CAMBRILS ATTACKS:
THE EVENTS:
Thursday, August 17 - Van enters Las Ramblas at about 4.50pm and ploughs into crowd of tourists and local people. Thirteen people are killed. Dead and injured are from 34 countries, including Australia. Driver flees on foot.
- Authorities in Vic, a small town outside Barcelona, say a van, thought to be a getaway vehicle, was found there on Thursday evening.
- Also on Thursday evening, police fire at a car that failed to stop at a roadblock in Barcelona. The car's owner, a Spanish man, is found dead with knife wounds. Officials believe the driver of the car, who fled, may be connected to the Barcelona attack.
Friday, August 18 - Police shoot dead five people in Cambrils, 120km from Barcelona, after they drove their car at pedestrians and police officers. A Spanish woman is killed, several people, including a police officer, are injured. The five assailants had an axe and knives in their car and wore fake explosive belts.
ALCANAR LINK
Police believe the attackers are linked to a house in Alcanar, southwest of Barcelona that was razed by an explosion on Wednesday, killing one or possibly two occupants.
The house is believed to have used to plan one or more large-scale attacks in Barcelona, possibly using a stock of butane gas canisters stored there.
The apparently accidental explosion forced the conspirators to scale down their plans and to carry out more "rudimentary" attacks, police say.
ISLAMIC STATE CLAIM
Islamic State's Amaq news agency said the attackers acted "in response to calls for targeting coalition states".
THE INVESTIGATION
Four people - three Moroccans and a citizen of Spain's North African enclave of Melilla - aged between 21 and 34 have been arrested.
Police searching for four men of Moroccan nationality who all lived in Ripoll, a Catalan town.
They are: Moussa Oukabir, 17; Said Aallaa, 18; Mohamed Hychami, 24; and Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22.
Three of the men were killed in Cambrils. Abouyaaqoub is still being sought by police; he was reportedly the driver of the van in Barcelona.
Police in France looking for the driver of a white Renault Kangoo van that may have been used by people involved in the Barcelona attack.
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