Witnesses of an attack in Barcelona's historic tourist district have spoken to Sky News.

Aamar Anwar, a human rights lawyer attending a conference, was walking down Las Ramblas when the attack happened.

He said the street was the busiest area of Barcelona and was "jam-packed" with tourists at the time.

"All of a sudden I heard a crashing noise and the whole street just started to run screaming," he said. "I saw a woman next to me screaming for her kids.

"Literally within 30 seconds, police vans, ambulances, police officers with guns were piling out, and we were sectioned off and then being pushed rapidly back. Everybody's just panic mode."


"Van upon van of police officers" arrived at the scene, he said, adding: "They have quite clearly unfortunately had to plan for something like this."

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Image: Police and an ambulance at the scene

Ethan Spibey, a charity director, was on holiday with his boyfriend and noticed police as he was walking down the street.

"All of a sudden it was real kind of chaos... people just started running screaming," he said. "There was kind of a mini-stampede when we were down one of the alleyways.

"I didn't take the time to look back... a small child was actually knocked over and we made sure that the child was picked up."

Mr Spibey said he had taken shelter in a church with four or five dozen other people.

"It seems like a lot of people have taken refuge in shops and local cafes," he said.

"They've locked the doors because I'm not sure whether the person who may have done it has actually been caught... We're just kind of waiting here."

Tourist Mel Higgins says she was barricaded inside a shop with her daughters for 20 minutes just after the #Barcelona terror attack happened pic.twitter.com/MPSQJ2RZSB — Sky News (@SkyNews) 17 August 2017

Mel Higgins was on holiday with her family and was barricaded inside a shop after the attack.

She said she grabbed her daughters and took shelter in the store, where the doors were quickly locked.

"It seemed very calm out on the streets," she said. "We were just about to leave when people started running again and screaming and they said everyone back in."

They waited for a further 20 minutes in the shop before being told by police to go home as quickly as possible.

"You see all these things on TV and, even if you're safe, you suddenly understand how frightening it is," Ms Higgins said. "So [her two children] were quite scared, as was I.

"It was just the unknown really, not really knowing what had happened."

Image: Las Ramblas stretches over half a mile from the Christopher Columbus monument to Catalonia Square

Lindsey Davidson was in a changing room in a shop at the time of the attack.

"We saw a load of people crowding out and running out of the door, honestly we thought there was a celebrity there or something," she said.

"We decided to leave and we went out of the shop and there was police everywhere, ambulances, fire engines, bomb disposal squads, and they were directing people to go as far away from the area as they could.

"We didn't see any of the victims, we just saw people running. Everyone running with their kids and crying and just trying to get as far away from the scene as possible."

Image: A person is taken away from the scene on a stretcher following the attack

Mike Mawhinney, a Sky producer, said the streets were being "completely locked off" three blocks from Las Ramblas.

"They're searching the area for anything else," he said. "From what I understand from one eyewitness, the vehicle entered Las Ramblas on the roadside and then went onto the pedestrian side and went down the middle."

He described seeing two wounded people lying on the pavement, one being stretchered into an ambulance with the other apparently not in a serious condition.

"Everybody's been thrown into buildings, locked in, everyone's told to get off the street," he said. "There was armed teams, undercover police and the flying squad guys clearing the streets and trying to take control of the situation.

"Obviously everybody's a little bit jittery due to the circumstances and thinking about secondary devices or whatever else may happen after the main event."

Image: Armed police have been deployed

Susan McLean was 100 metres away from the attack.

"All of a sudden scores of people ran screaming towards us, hysterical, children hysterical, very limited English," she said.

"They first of all said someone had been shot, it calmed down for a moment and then all of a sudden a second wave of people came down the street.

"We just ran into a shop. I lost my husband in the melee, but all the shops were shuttered. They locked people inside and went into lockdown mode and most of the area is still locked off.

"We were 100 metres away so we saw the aftermath of all the people who ran because this was the closest street to where it was. They were just hysterical.

"There were just hundreds of screaming people running away from where this had happened."