Barcelona attack witness: Scene was "definition of fear"
Barcelona is Spain's second largest city and a major destination for tourists from around the world. The city's Las Ramblas neighborhood was turned into a chaotic scene of carnage Thursday when a van mowed down pedestrians, leaving at least 13 dead and more than 100 injured. Bodies were strewn along the street as people ran, panicked, in all directions.
Hundreds of Barcelona residents have turned out, clapping and chanting "I am not afraid' in open defiance of Thursday's attack, reports CBS News correspondent Debora Patta.
Native New Yorker Alex Luque is on holiday in Spain with his family – it was a belated celebration for his younger sister's birthday.
"Within seconds, it was panic," Luque recalled.
They arrived at Las Ramblas in a tour bus just as the van began mowing down pedestrians.
"Upon impact, you just start seeing bodies and you start seeing people sprinting. You could tell that was the definition of fear," Luque said.
His biggest concern was for his sister.
"I just told her to do everything I said. I told her you and I are one person now. You do what I do, you listen to what I say, you don't go anywhere without me," Luque said.
Barcelona resident Liam Searle was skateboarding down the road when people began screaming and running for their lives. He didn't stop to look, but ran for safety into a nearby theater.
"When I was inside the theater, they were treating a small girl outside and she was probably from the age of like, I don't know, six or seven. She was screaming her eyes out in pain," Searle said.
Searle says he cannot block out the horrifying images he saw, but people in Barcelona, he says, will not be defined by fear and death. During the chaos of Thursday's attack, members of many families were separated from one another, including a seven-year-old Australian boy who is still missing. His mother was injured in the attack and his family is desperately trying to find him.