French police officers control vehicles coming across the border from Spain near Le Perthus, southern France, on August 18, 2017, following two quick-succession, separate attacks in Barcelona and another in the popular Spanish seaside city Cambrils, leaving 13 people dead and injuring more than 100 others.
In the first incident, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, a white van sped into a street packed full of tourists in central Barcelona on August 17, knocking people out of the way and killing 13. The driver stepped out of the van and fled the scene. Some eight hours later in Cambrils, a city 120 kilometres south of Barcelona, an Audi A3 car rammed into pedestrians, injuring six civilians -- one of them critically -- and a police officer. / AFP PHOTO / RAYMOND ROIG
Police in Spain found an eight-year-old boy dead in the boot of his stepmother’s car, the government said Sunday, in a case that has gripped the nation.
Hundreds of officers had been mobilised in the search for Gabriel Cruz after he went missing in late February in the southeastern village of Las Hortichuelas.
“This morning, the Civil Guard stopped the companion of Gabriel’s father while she was transporting the little boy’s corpse in the boot of a car,” Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said.
A missing person’s alert with a photo of the smiling boy went viral in Spain via mobile messaging services and social media.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tweeted his condolence. “I share with all Spaniards the pain of losing Gabriel,” he wrote.
