Barcelona attack: Vehicles as weapons of terror in Europe

Vehicles are frequently used in European terror attacks, with the most recent in Barcelona where a driver deliberately ploughed a van into pedestrians killing at least 16 people and injuring scores more.

Police officers stand next to the van involved on an attack in Las Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017. Source: AP

Vehicles have been used as weapons of terror several times over the past year, often by by followers of the Islamic State (IS) group, attacking nations in the US-led coalition fighting the jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

The IS propaganda agency Amaq claimed that "soldiers" from the jihadist group carried out the Barcelona attack, according to the Site Intelligence Group which monitors Islamist websites.

Police said they had arrested two suspects.

Bastille Day Nice attack

Police secure the area where a truck drove into a crowd during Bastille Day celebrations in Nice, France, 15 July 2016. Source: EPA/Andreas Gebert

On July 14, 2016, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian, ploughs a 19-tonne truck into a Bastille Day crowd leaving a fireworks display in Nice on the Promenade des Anglais, killing 86 people on the famous beachfront avenue.

IS later claims Bouhlel as one of its followers.

Paris attacks

On June 19, 2007, Adam Dzaziri, a 31-year-old radicalised Islamist who had sworn allegiance to the IS, is killed when he rams a car loaded with guns and a gas canister into a police van on Paris's Champs-Elysees. No one else is injured.

French soldier stands near the scene where French soldiers were hit and injured by a vehicle in the western Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret near Paris, France. Source: AP

On August 19, 2017, a 36-year-old Algerian man, named as Hamou B., drives a BMW into soldiers outside a barracks in the western Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, injuring six. After a car chase, police shot and wounded the suspect.

London targeted twice

Emergency personnel on Westminster Bridge London, after at least two people when a vehicle and knife were used in an attack Source: Press Association

On March 22, 2017, a 52-year-old British convert to Islam, Khalid Masood, mows down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge near parliament and stabs a policeman, killing five people and injuring around 50 before being shot dead by police. The attack is claimed by IS.

Police units at London Bridge after a van hit pedestrians on London Bridge, Central London, Britain, 03 June 2017. Source: EPA

On June 3, the British capital is hit again when three attackers strike pedestrians with a van and go on a stabbing spree wearing fake suicide vests in bars in the London Bridge area. Eight people are killed before the assailants are shot dead by police. The attack is also claimed by IS.

Berlin Christmas market

The truck that crashed into a Christmas market, in Berlin. Source: EPA

On December 19, 2016, Tunisian national Anis Amri, 24, hijacks a truck and slams into a crowd of people at a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 48.

Amri is shot dead by Italian police in Milan four days later after travelling through several European countries. IS claims responsibility.

Stockholm shopping street

Tow trucks move the beer truck that crashed and killed four people and injured 15 in Stockholm. Source: TT News Agency

An April 7, 2017 a truck attack in the Swedish capital kills five people, including an 11-year-old Swedish girl, a Briton, and one Belgian. Fifteen others are injured.

An Uzbek national, Rakhmat Akilov, 39, confesses to using a stolen beer truck to mow down pedestrians on Stockholm's busiest shopping street Drottninggatan. According to Uzbek police he had tried to join IS in 2015.