BARCELONA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish government decided to maintain its anti-terrorism alert level at 4 but pledged to reinforce security measures at the same time, the Interior Ministry said Saturday in a statement.
The decision was made during an anti-terror meeting chaired by Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido in the morning.
A total of 14 fatalities occurred in two terrorist attacks in the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Cambrils that also hurt about 126 people of 34 different nationalities.
Thirteen people were killed on Thursday afternoon in the popular Las Ramblas area of Barcelona when a white van zigzagged at high speed down the busy avenue thronged with tourists, knocking down pedestrians.
On early Friday morning, the fourteenth victim, a woman, was stabbed when five people jumped out of a car and began attacking people at random on the seaside promenade in Cambrils, a town south of Barcelona. Spanish police gunned down all five attackers. The woman died at hospital later on Friday. Six others were also injured in the attack.
As of Saturday morning, 54 injured people are still hospitalized with 12 of them in critical condition, according to Catalan emergency services.
HIGH RISK
Spain's Anti-terrorist Alert Level consists of a scale composed of several complementary levels, each of which is associated with a degree of risk, depending on the assessment of the terrorist threat that can be seen in each moment.
The classification has five levels of activation, associated with a certain level of risk -- level 1 corresponds to low risk, level 2 to moderate risk, level 3 to medium risk, level 4 at high risk and level 5 at very high risk.
In a statement released after the meeting, Zoido said that the level 4 will be reinforced with intensified security measures in places or events with massive people, and "special attention" will go to tourism areas.
Zoido also said that Spanish police have dismantled the terrorist cell behind the double terror attacks.
The minister then moved to the Moncloa presidential palace to inform Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy the decision.
"At the moment it is crucial for the safety of our citizens that the experts make a correct assessment of the short- and medium-term consequences of the attacks and that the different perspectives and analyzes on the Entity of the threat we face," said Zoido in the statement.
Besides the reinforcement of safety devices, additional measures also include an intensification of prevention in potential targets of terrorist attacks, reinforcement of the response devices to attacks and strengthened collaboration within relevant security bodies.
In the statement, Zoido also reiterated the need, already transmitted by the government of Spain to the European Union, to create a European Charter for victims of terrorism.
KING AND QUEEN VISIT HOSPITAL
Spain's King Felipe VI on Saturday visited Hospital del Mar (Hospital of the Sea) and Sant Pau Hospital in Catalonia to comfort the people wounded in the twin attacks.
Barcelona "has not been alone and will not be either" after the attack on La Ramblas, said the King, insisting that "we are not afraid and we will never have it" -- a famous slogan chanted by people during a solidarity march along the La Ramblas Friday.
The King, accompanied by Queen Letizia, told the injured that their hearts are with them while thanking the hospital staff for their work after the attacks.
"This vile, cowardly attack, this murder that has killed and injured so many people and shocked us all, can not destroy us, our values, our coexistence, our democracy or our appreciation for human rights," he said.
Data released by local emergency authority showed that another deadly victim of the attack has been identified as an American. In total, there are nine deadly victims identified as of 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
Victims were identified by a team comprised of members of the Catalan Institute of Legal Medicine and the Scientific police, said the Interior Ministry of the Catalan region.
TERRORIST CELL STILL NOT TOTALLY DISTROYED
Government of Catalonia considers the terrorist cell responsible for the double-attack has not been totally destroyed as some attackers are still at large, Catalan Minister of the Interior Joaquim Forn told reporters Saturday.
"We are optimistic, but the searching operation conducted by the Mossos (police authority in Catalonia) can not be considered as finished until we determine and stop all the people who are members of the cell," said Forn.
Meanwhile, police believed that the cell were originally planning something much bigger involving Barcelona's most emblematic tourist sites.
The terrorists planned to inflict as much carnage as possible by driving vans packed with explosives into three of the city's busiest tourist areas, according to a report in Spanish online newspaper El Espanol Saturday.
The newspaper cited police sources with information that one of the targets was Gaudi's as yet unfinished masterpiece, the towering basilica of the Sagrada Familia.
As the most visited monument in Spain attracting more than four million visitors last year, the Catholic site is thronged with tourist crowds with queues of dozens of people snaking across the forecourt to gain entry, while thousands more linger outside to admire its spires.
Preventive measures have already been implied. Local police authority has reinforced security measures in the Barcelona Football Club and the Girona Football Club.
Football fans are recommended to visit stadiums with maximum advance for access controls, and the stadiums of FC Barcelona and Girona will open an hour and a half earlier, local police spokesman Albert Oliva told reporters.
Zinedine Zidane, a French football star and now coach of Real Madrid Football Club, said Saturday at a press conference that "We did a minute of silence and our heart is with of all the people who suffered the attacks. To them we sent our deep condolences."
VAN DRIVER STILL AT LARGE, REPORTERS ARRESTED
Meanwhile, Spanish authorities identified one fugitive terrorist as Younes Abouyaaqoub.
Police are searching for the 23-year-old Moroccan in Ripoll near Barcelona. The suspect has been wanted by Interpol prior to the double attacks.
Confusion still reigns over the identity of the van attack driver. The police firstly thought the driver was Moussa Oukabir, one of the terrorists gunned down in Cambrils, and later they turned their attention to Younes Abouyaaqoub.
Police authorities in Catalonia said that they are ruling out the possibility that the van's driver would join the group that carried out the attack in Cambrils.
So far, four people have been arrested and are being questioned by police.
Two dead people were found among the rubbles after a blast occurred on Wednesday in a house in Alcanar (south of Barcelona), and police thought one of them could be the imam of the Catalan town of Ripoll, whose house has been searched.
Police found more than 100 butane gas canisters in the house.
The police believe the terrorist cell consisted of 12 men -- 5 of them shot down in Cambrils, 2 dead in Alcanar blast, four arrested and one on the run.
Five journalists -- two Spaniards and three Italians -- have been arrested for entering without permission the sealed floors that had been searched by local police in Ripoll, which since Thursday has become focus of the investigation of the attacks, Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia reported Saturday.
