Video: Filipina recalls Barcelona van attack; whole of Spain in mourning




(Eagle News) — A Filipina tourist in Barcelona recalled the horror of the August 17 van attack in Las Ramblas, saying this was the first time she had ever witnessed such an event.

A day after the incident, Erha Grace Ebahay Quatropani, recalled how she had heard many people shouting and at first thought it was just a case of bag snatching, in the tourist-filled area of Las Ramblas, a popular spot in Barcelona, when the tragedy occurred. She was just leaving a supermarket then. After that she saw police running in the area.

Sabi may terorista yata,” she said, recalling what the others said.

She said that a woman then called up emergency, saying there were many lying dead.

They all stooped low as police shouted for them to get inside the establishments.

It was a tense moment.

“Natakot kami,” she said.

Afterwards. she saw a little girl crying, her mother was among those hit in the incident.

“It was terrifying!” recalled Erha who was just visiting her sisters in Barcelona.

She came from Italy where she had been staying for 10 years, before she went to Spain to be with her sisters.

Erha said she and the others with her then weren’t able to go home until past nine in the evening, as police strictly instructed those in the area to stay indoors.  People in the area ushered them inside a building where they waited in fear.

The van attack happened at 4:50 in the afternoon on Thursday, August 17.

Police patrols, and ambulances came rushing.

Erha, who is married to an Italian, said she realized even Barcelona or any other place at that moment was not safe.

– People remember van attack victims

For Filipinos living there, it put them on edge, nervous that such an incident would occur again.

People were still in shock as they rambled along Las Ramblas. Many brought flowers, stuck notes of their condolences, as well as messages of hope and for people to remain strong.

 




One large message read, “Juntos, Diferentes, Paz” and its translation in English, “Together, Different, Peace” in black.

Three short words with a strong message against the senseless violence that again claimed innocent lives in Europe.

People walked as if on a daze, tearful that this happened.

Those who were killed and injured in the Las Ramblas van attack were of different nationalities from 36 different countries, including the Philippines.  There were 14 who had been killed while more than a hundred were injured.

Two Filipinos — a father and his five-year old son — who were also Irish citizens as they had migrated in Europe, were among the injured.

The world condemned this latest spate of violence. The suspects were young people radicalized in Spain by a terror cell.  The whole of Spain was in mourning.




Police are now looking for a 22-year old suspect, Younes Abouyaaqoub, who media reports say was the driver of a van that smashed into people on Barcelona’s busy Las Ramblas boulevard on Thursday.

Most of the suspects are children of Moroccan immigrants, including Ripoll-born Moussa Oukabir, 17, one of five suspects shot dead in the Cambrils attack. His older brother, Driss, counts among the four arrested.

(videos taken by Eagle News correspondents Lovely Apple Joyce Fabros and Noel Castillo in Barcelona, Eagle News Service)