Local media outlets are reporting that at least 13 people are dead and others injured after a van plowed into a crowd of people on the sidewalk in the historic Las Ramblas district of Barcelona, Spain.
Catalan police tweeted that “there are mortal victims and injured from the crash” without specifying numbers.
The Associated Press says that police are treating the incident as an act of terror.
In a photograph shown by public broadcaster RTVE, three people were lying on the ground in the street and were apparently being helped by police and others.
Police cordoned off the broad street and shut down its stores. They asked people to stay away from the area so as not to get in the way of the emergency services.
Las Ramblas, a street of stalls and shops that cuts through the center of Barcelona, is one of the city's top tourist destinations. People walk down a wide, pedestrianized path in the center of the street, but cars can travel on either side.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais quoted unnamed police sources as saying the perpetrators of the crash were holed up in a bar in Tallers Street. There was no immediate police confirmation of the report.