THIRTEEN people have died after a white van drove into crowds on Las Ramblas in the centre of Barcelona before a gunman opened fire in a nearby market.
Customers in a bar at the top of the Ramblas were held hostage by a terror suspect soon afterwards before trained police negotiators entered.
It was confirmed just before 20.00 that two men had been arrested, one of whom is thought to be the van driver, a man in his late 20s or early 30s named Driss Oukabir.
Police spread out across the Plaza de Catalunya and urged all residents and visitors to stay indoors, telling the public to keep well away from the area.
Now the suspects are in custody, it is expected that the streets will be declared safe later tonight.
The van ran into several hundred people at around 17.15, leaving dozens injured and killing two outright before the driver got out and fled on foot.
People were heard shouting, “Evacuate the square, terror attack!” as distressed pedestrians sought refuge in the Virreina Palace next to where the crash took place.
Train and metro stations in the Ramblas area were immediately shut.
Police warned that the van driver was armed, and half an hour after the massacre on the Ramblas, a shoot-out was heard in the nearby Boquería Market.
At 18.15, police confirmed a gunman had barricaded himself into the bar Luna de Istambul at the top of the Ramblas, and reports at 18.48 claimed officers had entered the premises and were negotiating with the kidnapper, who is since reported to have been arrested.
Police also announced they were looking for a second van, which was later located in the town of Vic.
Global news agencies confirm the death toll now sits at 13, of whom at least four were killed by the runaway van.
But the Mossos d'Esquadra, Catalunya's military police, are playing it more cautiously and are only confirming two deaths and 32 injured.
Many of the injured are in a critical condition, and hospitals across Barcelona have sent out an appeal for emergency blood donors.
As yet, it is not clear how many terrorists are involved, since reports differ as to whether two or more are acting.
Police say the van driver is wearing a white shirt with blue stripes and is around 1.7m (5'7”) tall.
They confirm it is a terrorist attack.
Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed 'Islamic State', or DAESH, has 'celebrated' the attack on social media and claimed authorship of it, citing the expulsion of the Moors in the 15th century from what they continue to call al-Andalus as their motive.
Some reports claim the CIA warned Spain two months ago that the Ramblas could become the focus of an imminent attack.
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