THE hero police officer who shot dead four terrorists in Spain intent on attacking people with knives was a former elite soldier and expert marksman.

The policeman, who has not been named for security reasons, had served with the Spanish Legion, a crack infantry unit of the Spanish army.

It is a “rapid reaction force” which bears the nickname “Bridegrooms of Death’, and is modelled on the legendary French Foreign Legion.

The married father, highly trained in firearms and marksmanship, is now part of the Catalan police force, Mossos d’Esquadra, The Telegraph reports.

As the world reels at news that seven-year-old Australian Julian Cadman is among those murdered in Barcelona last week, the officer who shot four of the terrorists down just wants to get back to work.

He had joined the police force looking for a more stable and less dangerous life, and wasn’t meant to be working last Thursday when terrorists struck the heart of Spain, in Barcelona.

He offered to work overtime in Cambrils, about 120km from Barcelona, when security was beefed up in the wake of the Barcelona attack earlier in the day.

He was in a patrol car with another police officer when the five terrorists drove into Cambrils to continue their campaign of terror, ploughing their black Audi A3 into a group of pedestrians.

The Audi smashed into the police car, injuring the officer’s partner.

The Audi overturned, and the terrorists emerged wearing what was thought to be suicide vests, and wielding knives.

Witnesses say the former Legion officer calmly pulled his gun, and with his injured partner lying at his feet, shot dead four of the terrorists.

The fifth managed to escape, stabbing a 61-year-old woman, before he too was shot dead by another police officer.

The president of the regional government in Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, personally thanked him during a visit to the police station as his colleagues gave him a spontaneous round of applause.

Colleagues of the man said he is “very quiet, not the Rambo prototype of an elite officer”.

He is humble and had played down in his role in taking down the terrorists.

“He’s a quiet man who does not consider himself a hero. He says he was just doing his job. But the truth is he saved a great many lives,” said one colleague.

The officer is believed to be undergoing counselling with a psychologist, but has already said he wants to get back to work.