Spaniard Stabbed to Death After Car Runs Over Policemen in Barcelona

A man who was reportedly shot down by Spanish police in Barcelona after his car drove through a police checkpoint was not in the driver’s seat and died of a knife wound, local media reported Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The car was stopped and its driver was reported to have been shot dead by police shortly after a van ploughed through a crowd at a promenade in central Barcelona, killing 13 people. Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero said the car driver’s link to the van attack had not been confirmed.

But the region’s senior interior official Joaquim Forn said early Friday he did not rule the car incident was related to the terrorist attack after all, a connection that will now be closely investigated, according to Spain’s newspaper La Vanguardia.

The paper also confirmed the man that died after running the checkpoint was the owner of the Ford Focus involved, but he was allegedly in the passenger seat when the incident took place and was stabbed by an unknown person.