MADRID (AP) - Police haven’t found any guns or explosives in the house of a man who allegedly attacked police officers with a knife in Barcelona before being shot dead, a senior official in Spain’s Catalonia region said Tuesday.
Authorities are investigating whether the suspect in Monday’s attack at the police station on the outskirts of Barcelona had links to terror groups, Catalan Interior Minister Miquel Buch said.
He told Catalan public radio that “as things stand” terrorism can’t be ruled out as a motive for the attack. Officials haven’t identified the dead suspect.
The investigation by police and intelligence services could last weeks, and the motive may not emerge until it’s concluded, Buch said in Catalan, according to Spanish news agency Europa Press.
Police were analyzing evidence collected during the house search.
Catalan police chief Andreu Joan Martinez said Tuesday the policewoman who shot the alleged attacker acted in a “proportionate, adequate” way, considering the “extremely serious situation” she faced.
The policewoman was the first person the attacker approached with a knife after gaining entry to the police station before dawn.
Martinez praised the policewoman and the sergeant near her for their quick response to the threat.
“That explains why today we’re not speaking about greater loss of life,” Martinez told a news conference in Barcelona.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Catalan police force’s largest labor group, Valentin Anadon, said in an interview with Europa Press that the policewoman told the attacker “about 10 times” to put down his knife before she opened fire.
Police haven’t released any video footage from inside the police station during the attack.
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