Theresa May: We will confront perverted extremism behind Barcelona attack
3 min read
The UK stands “shoulder to shoulder” with Spain in dealing with the “perverted extremism” behind yesterday’s terrorist atrocities, Theresa May has said.
The Prime Minister spoke to her Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy this morning to offer her “deepest condolences” and offered “any assistance” the UK can provide in the wake of the attacks.
Fourteen people died and dozens more were injured when a van drove into crowds on Las Ramblas in Barcelona yesterday afternoon.
That was followed by a second incident last night, when five terrorists were shot dead by police in Cambrils, south-west of Barcelona, after another car attack killed one and injured six
Mrs May said that “a number” of Britons had been caught up in the two attacks, including a child with dual British nationality who is currently missing.
And she did not rule out a change in the law on hiring vans and lorries after a spate of copycat attacks involving extremists driving into pedestrians in urban areas.
Speaking in Downing Street, Mrs May said: "The Foreign Office is offering consular assistance to those who were involved in the attack and their families and are working urgently to see if there are others who need their help.
“But we must work together if we are to confront this evil of terrorism and also to confront and deal with the perverted extremist ideology which drives it, ridding the internet of poisonous material and ensuring our police and security services have the powers they need. Terrorism is the great threat that we all face but together we will defeat it.”
Asked whether that response could include changing the law on hiring vehicles at short notice, she said the Government “must look at the powers that our police and agencies need to be able to deal with terrorism”.
“That’s why the Government has initiated a review, which we did after the attacks that took place in Manchester and London earlier this year, to look at the capabilities that our services and our police have to dealing with this threat. But as we see from the attack in Barcelona, this is a threat that is faced across the world and we must work together to rid the internet of the poisonous material that drives terrorism and to deal with the terrorists.”
Jeremy Corbyn said he was “shocked and appalled” by the events in Spain and renewed his call to recruit more rank-and-file police officers to help deal with the terror threat.
“Crucially we need more police officers on the street, I think that the cooperation between the community and the police are important and community police officers are a very important part of that connection,” the Labour leader told Sky News.
“The police are resourced at one level, the armed level, but there do need to be more police officers in general.”
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