Spain sets up 800 checkpoints in Catalonia in manhunt for Barcelona suspect

Desperate to ease public fears and neutralise a terrorist cell responsible for the deadliest attack in Spain in a decade, Spanish police erected 800 checkpoints across the region of Catalonia on Sunday - part of a massive manhunt for a Moroccan-born man they suspect was the driver of the van that killed 13 and injured scores in Barcelona last week.

Authorities could not say whether Younes Abouyaaquob, 22, was still in Spain or had crossed the border into France, but they were clearly frustrated that he continued to elude police.

“We don’t know where he is,” regional police chief Josep Lluís Trapero said at a news briefing in Barcelona, adding that the terrorist cell had planned a “much more serious attack” that was probably thwarted by an accidental explosion Wednesday at a house used to assemble components for a bomb.

Authorities said Sunday that they had identified three more of the victims in the Barcelona attack, including Julian Cadman, a 7-year-old boy with dual British and Australian citizenship who had been missing since Thursday. He was separated from his family in the panic unleashed by the attack and struck by the speeding van.

One American, Jared Tucker, 42, the father of three, was identified earlier as a victim. He was killed while on his honeymoon.