4 Barcelona terror suspects reveal initial plans in court

The terrorists' cell which claimed 15 lives in Spain during last week's attacks were initially preparing a massacre of much greater proportions at landmark buildings and monuments in Barcelona, the Spanish High Court found out in Madrid on Tuesday.

After the surviving four members of the cell were questioned by Judge Fernando Andreu at the Spanish National High Court, more details of their planned attack were revealed.

Police officers ask people to leave Plaza Catalonia following a terrorist attack in central Barcelona, Spain, on Aug. 17, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua]

Driss Oukabir, Mohamed Houli Chemlala, Mohammed Aallaa and Salah El Karib spent all of Tuesday in the court. At the end of the day, the judge decided to send Oukabir and Houli Chemlala to prison while leaving Aallaa in provisional freedom and El Karib at the "disposition of the court."

During Andreu's questioning, it was revealed that on August 1st and 2nd the terrorists bought 500 liters of acetone as "necessary material" to make explosives.

The explosives were being produced at a house the terrorists were using as a base in Alcanar, which accidentally exploded on Wednesday, killing two of their members and forcing a change of plans.

The house in Alcanar also contained "a large number of butane gas cylinders, a large number of nails to be used as shrapnel, detonators to start the explosion, peroxide and bicarbonate among others," all with an intention of "committing a terrorist action on a grand scale," Judge Andreu found out.

The terrorists were also trying to make acetone peroxide, which is "habitually used by the Islamic State in its terrorist attacks, such as those in Paris and Brussels," Andreu said.

The judge concluded that the cell was aiming to carry out a massive terrorist attack "against monuments in Barcelona," and that they were in the final stages of completing their plans.

However, the accidental explosion forced a change of plans and "precipitated the succession of posterior events," that were the attack using a van to kill 13 people on Las Ramblas boulevard in Barcelona and an attack using knives in Cambrils.