MADRID—Spanish police said on Aug. 20 they had shot a man armed with a knife as he tried to attack a police station in the northeastern region of Catalonia.
Regional Mossos police said on Twitter the man had entered the police station in Cornella, near Barcelona, just before 6:00 a.m. local time “with the aim of attacking the officers” adding he had then been shot.
A man armed with knife has acceded this morning to Cornellà's police station with the aim to attack the Police officers. The aggressor has been shot down. The facts happened a few minuts before 6 a.m.
— Mossos (@mossos) August 20, 2018
A Mossos spokeswoman said she could not give any further information. An investigation has been launched.
State broadcaster RTVE said the attacker was a 29-year-old Algerian resident in Cornella with Spanish identity documents, and had been killed by the gunshot.
The man had shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is the greatest), local reports say.
The incident comes just three days after Barcelona commemorated the first anniversary of an Islamic terrorist attack in which a young man drove a van down a busy central boulevard, killing 14 and injuring over 100 in Spain’s worst attack in more than a decade.
By Isla Binnie