Muslims express innocence in Barcelona gathering

Associated Press
People stand next to flowers, candles and other items set up on the Las Ramblas boulevard in Barcelona as they pay tribute to the victims of the Barcelona attack on August 18, 2017. (AFP)

BARCELONA: A small group of Muslims have gathered at Barcelona’s Las Ramblas promenade to insist they aren’t terrorists in the wake of the twin vehicle attacks that killed 14 people and injured dozens.
The protest by about 100 members of Barcelona’s Muslim community was held at the Canaletas Fountain at the top of the promenade.
They shouted “We are not terrorists” and “Islam is peace.”
Catalan’s Moroccan community, in particular, has been in the spotlight after the four main suspects in the attacks claimed Moroccan roots.
Portugal’s prime minister says a 20-year-old woman from Lisbon is among those killed in the Barcelona attacks.
The woman, whose 74-year-old grandmother was also killed in Thursday’s attack on Las Ramblas, had initially been considered missing but Prime Minister Antonio Costa confirmed her death in a statement to reporters Saturday.
Portuguese media reported that the two were in Barcelona to celebrate the grandmother’s birthday. Their names were not released.
The two Portuguese women are among 14 people killed in car attacks on Barcelona and the town of Cambrils, as part of what authorities call a terrorist plot claimed by the Daesh group.
Spanish authorities have decided to maintain the country’s terrorist threat rating at level 4, declaring that no new attacks were imminent.
Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido says Saturday that the country would nevertheless reinforce security for events that draw large crowds and popular tourist sites.
French police are carrying out extra border checks on people arriving from Spain as authorities search for a fugitive suspect in the Barcelona attacks.
No arrests had been made by Saturday morning, according to a French security official, who described the checks along the normally open border as routine whenever neighboring countries signal a potential risk.
Another French security official said Spanish authorities flagged a Kangoo utility vehicle believed to have been rented in Spain by a suspect in Thursday’s attacks and that may have crossed the nearby border into France.
Both officials were not authorized to be publicly named.
At multiple border posts in the winding roads crossing the western Pyrenees on Saturday, gendarmes stopped certain vehicles to check drivers’ IDs and the contents of their cars. They targeted primarily vans, trucks and utility vehicles.