MADRID (AP) - The Latest on a knife attack in Barcelona (all times local):
1:05 p.m.
Authorities in Spain have stepped up security at regional police stations after police in Barcelona opened a locked police station door to a man who then pulled a knife on them. Police shot the attacker dead.
Barcelona Police Commissioner Rafel Comes says the police station security door was closed ahead of the attack Monday.
He says the suspect repeatedly pressed the buzzer to be let in and spoke with officers inside over an intercom. After they decided to let him in, he pulled out “a large knife” and lunged at officers in what allegedly was a premeditated attack.
Comes says “for the moment” the incident “is being treated as a terrorist act.”
The alleged assailant, who was not identified, lived near the police station. Comes says police are investigating the man’s background and awaiting a warrant to search his apartment.
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12:55 p.m.
Barcelona police say they are treating a man’s knife attack on officers at a city police station as a terrorist incident.
Commissioner Rafel Comes, the second-in-command of the Barcelona police, tells a news conference that police shot dead the man after he entered the premises on Monday and pulled out a knife.
Comes says the man shouted “Allah” and other words that police officers did not understand.
But he says police have found no evidence linking the incident to last year’s terror attacks in Barcelona and nearby Cambrils, which killed 16 people.
Intelligence services are helping with the investigation.
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8:45 p.m.
Spanish police say a man attacked officers with a knife at a police station in Barcelona and was gunned down.
The attacked occurred just before 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) Monday in the Cornella district on the outskirts of the city, local police said in a tweet.
Police said the man “intended to attack police officers.”
They did not say whether the attacker was killed, but a short time after the incident a wrapped-up body was taken out of the police station on a stretcher and placed in a mortuary van.
Police provided no further details about the incident but said an investigation was launched and a news conference would be held later in the morning.
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