Barcelona recalls the horrors on first anniversary of terror attacks

Last year's terrorist attacks, which killed 15 people and injured some 130, shook the Catalonian region to its core. Those who were wounded or witnessed the attack continue to harbor the traumas to this day. "The van passed by me and from there I saw everything ... people flew into the air like broken dolls, I was paralyzed, there were many people bleeding," said witness Ana Cortes.

A year on from the attacks, thousands gathered to see the families of the victims lay down wreaths on the scene of the attack. The emotional ceremony saw the crowd recite John Lennon's Imagine and read poetry in different languages.

Spanish King Felipe IV attended the commemorative ceremony with his wife Queen Letizia. While the country's new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has sought to diffuse tensions between Madrid and Barcelona following last year's independence drive, the King made an unusual political intervention during his speech Friday to decry the Catalan separatist movement.

Despite calls from victims' families not to politicize Friday's commemoration, the deep rift between Barcelona and Madrid was always bound to rear its head. Several separatists boycotted the ceremony on the Placa de Catalunya due to the King's appearance, staging their own commemorative marches instead.

On August 17, 2017, Moroccan national Younes Abouyaaqoub, aged 22, ploughed a van into hundreds of pedestrians on Barcelona's famed Las Ramblas boulevard, before fleeing the van just of the Placa de Catalunya. During his escape, Abouyaaqoub stabbed to death a 34-year-old man as he was parking and stole the car.

Just hours later, five of Abouyaaqoub's accomplices stabbed a woman to death and injured six others in the coastal town of Cambrils, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of Barcelona. All five attackers were shot dead by police in the ensuing manhunt. The so-called "Islamic State" (IS) terror group claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Four days after the attacks, Abouyaaqoub was shot dead by police in the town of Subirats, around 40 km (25 miles) from Barcelona. A police officer said that the killed suspect was wearing an explosive belt during the shootout.

Spanish authorities arrested a further four men in connection with the attacks —including the owner of the car used in the Cambrils attack and the brother of one of the killed terror suspects. Two of the detained remain in custody and face terrorism and murder charges, while the others have been released but are barred from leaving the country.

No stranger to the threat of terrorism, Spain tried to quickly readjust following the attacks, boosting security and restricting vehicle access to busy streets. Barcelona's tourism sector took a major hit in the aftermath of the attacks, which were followed by a controversial independence referendum. However, the city is set to retain its place as one of the most visited European cities in 2018.