María Lurdes Ribeiro

Description

Thirteen years after the 2004 Madrid bomb attacks, Spain was again targeted by jihadist terrorists. At around 5 pm on 17 August 2017, Younes Abouyaaqoub drove a van down the Paseo de las Ramblas in Barcelona, hitting large numbers of people in the central pedestrian area of the street, from the Plaza de Cataluña to the “Pavimento Miró”. Fifteen people were killed in the attack —including two children aged 3 and 7— and another 131 were injured. The Jihadist terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack through its news agency, Amaq.

María Lurdes Ribeiro had invited her granddaughter Maria Ribeiro, with whom she was very close, to celebrate her 74th birthday with her in Barcelona. “They arrived in the city, settled in, got in touch with the family and decided to go for a little walk,” explained Portuguese Secretary of State José Luís Carneiro, after learning the identities of the two Portuguese victims in the attack.

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