MADRID (Reuters) - French police have arrested three people suspected of links to a series of Islamist attacks in the Spanish region of Catalonia in August, the Spanish Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.

In collaboration with Spanish authorities, French police arrested three people suspected of having links with Driss Oukabir, who is in custody in Spain. He is charged with membership in a terrorist organisation and murder for his part in a Barcelona van attack that killed 14 people in August.

The suspects were arrested in the French regions of Gard and Tarn. Police also carried out several searches at French addresses, the ministry said in a statement.

A man drove a rented vehicle into crowds in Barcelona’s famous Las Ramblas boulevard on Aug. 17, killing 14 and injuring more than 100. One day later, police shot dead five people in Cambrils, down the coast from Barcelona, after they drove their car at pedestrians and police officers, killing a woman.