POLICE IN BARCELONA opened fire on a truck full of butane gas bottles that was driving the wrong way down a motorway.
Officers managed to get the truck to stop and the Swedish driver was arrested.
Barcelona’s city hall said the truck had been stolen and Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said it was not a terror incident.
“The driver of the stolen butane truck stolen in Barcelona has a history of psychiatric problems. It was not a terrorist act,” he tweeted.
The truck was travelling on a motorway near the northeastern city’s famed harbour around 11am local time this morning. It was carrying dozens of orange gas bottles stacked on the back in plain view
Spanish national television TVE reported that the truck had rammed several cars before local police fired several gunshots to stop it. Police did not say whether there were any injuries.
Mireia Ruiz, a woman who saw the truck from her home nearby, said the driver ignored people screaming at him to stop as he sped down the wrong side of a ring road.
“When people shouted at him, he would laugh and make offensive gestures with his hand,” she said.
The trace of at least one gunshot was visible on the windscreen of the truck.
Around 20 police officers and at least six police cars were on site at the end of the chase and several gas bottles were lying on the ground.
With reporting by © – AFP 2017 and Associated Press
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