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Residents of Barcelona said they had long feared an attack on their bustling city.

“This is a huge city, and somehow we were always expecting something like this, but of course you’re never prepared,” said Cristina Nadal, 44, an aide for the Catalan government, who came to the moment of silence on Friday.

The crowd was “exactly what we wanted to show. That although the terrorists want to beat us, we can show to the world that we can still stand strong,” she said.

Photo by Oriol Duran/AP

Two longtime Muslim residents of Barcelona said they were furious about the violence.

“What Islam teaches us is that killing one person is like killing all of humanity,” said Nagma Jawed, 40, who moved to the city 20 years ago from her native India and runs a textile shop in the city.

“First of all, we are human beings. Our religion comes after that,” said Jawed, who was wearing a headscarf on Friday as she stood in the square with her husband for the mourning ceremony.

It was not immediately clear how closely the Islamic State had worked with the attackers. The group has previously claimed responsibility for attacks inspired by its rhetoric but not directly planned by Islamic State leaders.

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Police later said they were looking into a potential link between the van attack and a pair of explosions that destroyed a house in Alcanar, about 100 miles southeast of Barcelona, earlier in the day. One person was killed there and 16 were injured, including police officers and firefighters who were investigating the initial blast. The blast at the house, which apparently contained propane canisters, was initially reported to be a gas explosion.

At least one of the three men in detention was involved in the explosion, one of the Spanish security officials said, and counterterrorism authorities were proceeding on the assumption that the propane canisters were intended for use as part of an attack and exploded prematurely.

The Las Ramblas attack, which took place over a few terror-filled minutes just before 5 p.m. local time, set off a wave of panic and confusion as authorities sought to track down the perpetrators, and fearful people hid for hours in barricaded shops, restaurants and churches.