CBC News – He was so vigorous: Boy, 7, missing since Barcelona attacks ID d among the dead
‘He was so vigorous’: Boy, 7, missing since Barcelona attacks ID’d among the dead
The Associated Press
Last Updated:Aug 20, two thousand seventeen Four:13 PM ET
Julian Cadman, 7, an Australian with dual British nationality, was identified Sunday by Spanish authorities as one of three more victims in the Barcelona van attack Thursday. Julian had been missing since the attack on the Las Ramblas promenade that left thirteen people dead. Facebook
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A seven-year-old boy who had been missing since the Barcelona van attack last Thursday and two others are the latest victims identified by Spanish authorities following the rampage that left thirteen people dead and more than one hundred twenty wounded.
Julian Cadman, an Australian with dual British nationality, was confirmed Sunday as the child who had become separated from his mother and was reported as missing, said Nacho Solano, of Catalan emergency services. Julian’s mother was also earnestly wounded and hospitalized.
The other two victims identified Sunday were Belgian and Italian, but Solano said he could not yet name them.
Julian and his mother, a 43-year-old from the Philippines who had been living in Australia, were at a wedding and liking the glances when the van sped down the Las Ramblas promenade targeting pedestrians.
“He was so spirited, funny and cheeky, always bringing a smile to our faces,” the child’s family said in a statement released by the Australian Foreign Affairs Department after his death was announced.
On Friday, Julian’s grandfather had posted an appeal on Facebook with Julian’s photo asking for help finding him.
A Canadian, Ian Moore Wilson, 53, the father of a Vancouver police officer, was named Friday as one of the thirteen killed in Barcelona.
Following a separate car attack eight hours later in a crowded port area of nearby Cambrils, Ana Maria Suarez, 67, of Spain was identified as the only fatality civilian killed before five attackers wearing fake explosive belts were shot to death by police in the seaside town.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for both attacks.
Also Sunday, Catalan police Chief Josep Lluis Trapero said investigators believe two people linked to the Barcelona attack died in a rental house when it exploded Wednesday in the coastal town of Alcanar, two hundred kilometres south of Barcelona. DNA tests were underway to identify the remains.
Police said there are twelve suspects in the Barcelona attack, and that the investigation is focusing on a missing imam who police think could have died in the house explosion. They say Abdelbaki Es Satty may have radicalized the youthfull dudes in the extremist cell.
Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and King Felipe of Spain with his wifey Letizia are seen before the high mass in the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona on Sunday. (Sergio Perez/Reuters)
A series of managed explosions were conducted by police at the site on Saturday after several gas canisters were seen outside the house, which was ruined in a massive explosion.
Media reports on Sunday quoted police as telling they found more than one hundred twenty gas canisters.
Justin Trudeau on terror attacks in Spain and Burkina Faso0:37
‘These cowards will not win’
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke on Sunday about the attacks in Spain as well as last the shooting a week ago at a restaurant in Burkina Faso that left eighteen people, including two Canadians, dead.
“These latest acts of terror are despicable,” Trudeau told reporters in Montreal. “They seek to divide the global community, aiming to pit neighbour against neighbour, stoking fear and mistrust.
“These cowards will not win,” he said. “We will proceed to do as we have done, standing united and stronger in the face of hatred. We will be emboldened in our values, values of love and acceptance, and strength through diversity. Friends, in the wake of terror, let us never lose view of who we are.”
No previous ties to terrorism
The Catalan police chief told reporters in Barcelona that none of the twelve suspects in the van attack “had precedents that linked them to terrorism, including the imam.”
He said one theory is that the group had been planning one or more attacks with explosives in Barcelona. He added officials have no concrete evidence about how a group of youthfull boys in the northeastern town of Ripoll were radicalized, however police say Es Satty may have been involved.
Authorities said the attacks were the work of a cell that had been plotting from the house for more than six months.
A picture taken on Saturday shows a building, left, allegedly used as a mosque by imam Abdelbaki es Satty in Ripoll. The El Pais daily, quoting police sources, said the imam could be one of the dead in the explosion of Alcanar, which happened a day before the vehicle attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils. (Pau Barrena/AFP/Getty Pictures)
Es Satty in June abruptly abandon working at a mosque in Ripoll, north of Barcelona, and has not been seen since.
His former mosque denounced the deadly attacks and weeping relatives marched into a Ripoll square on Saturday, tearfully denying any skill of the radical plans of their sons and brothers.
Police are also still searching for Younes Abouyaaquoub, a 22-year-old Moroccan. His mother says his junior brother, Hussein, has disappeared, as has the junior brother of one of five radicals slain by police during the Cambrils attack.
A police officers walks near several gas canisters near a ruined house in Alcanar during a search on Friday linked to the Barcelona and Cambrils attacks. (Jose Jordan/AFP/Getty Photos)
Everyone so far known in the cell grew up in Ripoll, a town in the Catalan foothills about one hundred kilometres north of Barcelona.
Spanish police have searched nine homes in Ripoll, including Es Satty’s, and set up roadblocks. French police carried out extra border checks on people coming in from Spain on the belief that Abouyaaquoub may cross into France or has already.
Even with Abouyaaquoub and others at large, Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido announced the cell “cracked” Saturday. In addition to the five killed by police, four suspects were in custody. He said there was no fresh imminent threat of attack.
By late Saturday, the Catalan emergency service said fifty three attack victims still remained hospitalized, with13 of them in critical condition.
Victims remembered
Dignitaries attended a church service in Barcelona on Sunday for victims of the vehicle attacks.
King Felipe VI of Spain and his wifey, Letizia, arrived for the mass at Basilica of the Sagrada Familia, along with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont.
Later Sunday, fans and players held a minute’s muffle prior to a soccer match inbetween FC Barcelona and Betis at Camp Nou Stadium.
Before the minute was up, ems of thousands of fans broke into a massive round of applause and began shouting the chant “I’m Not Afraid,” which has become a rallying sob in the days since the attacks.
Similar tributes were to be held at all Spanish league matches this weekend.
Extra security was in force in and around Camp Nou for the match.