HUMAN rights lawyer and University of Glasgow rector Aamer Anwar was just yards away from yesterday’s terror attack in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas.
Glasgow-based Anwar shared a film of the immediate aftermath of the attack on social media. He tweeted: “Can’t believe this I’m on Ramblas, heard screaming & whole street ran – a car believed drove in2crowd – had walked down 10secs earlier.”
Anwar posted a second video seven minutes later, showing tourists being pushed back from the popular street in the Catalan city.
He said: “It’s awful, I can’t believe it. I just walked out of the cathedral and was going to find something to eat. Five seconds later I heard this crashing noise, then there was pandemonium. I was about 50 metres away.
“I just heard a noise, I didn’t know what it was. I just heard people starting to scream. It was like when you see an avalanche, everyone just started to run. One man who had been running behind me said he thought five or six people were seriously hurt.
“Police with guns were screaming at us to move and the emergency services response was huge. There were about 30 ambulances.
“Police are everywhere with guns. There are hundreds of police officers and I can see the helicopter just above the area where it happened.
Anwar continued: “When I arrived yesterday one thing that stood out to me was the high police presence.
“I just keep seeing ambulance after ambulance going past. The place was just packed with families with children. All that keeps going through my head is looking at the families and the children – looking at the little kids. There are people on holiday, the place is stunning, it’s beautiful.
“It’s just horrific that it’s happened. You see it on the news but I have never been caught in the middle of it before.”
Another Scottish tourist, Lindsey Davidson, told Sky News of the pandemonium as people fled the area with their children.
She said: “We initially thought there was a celebrity or someone there. We decided to leave the shop we were in and there were police everywhere, and ambulances, fire engines, bomb disposal squads. They were just directing everyone to go as fast away from the area as they could. It was pretty scary.”
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