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Where is little Julian? Fears grow for Sydney boy missing since Barcelona attack

Spanish police surround a car after the shootout in the resort city of Cambils.

Spanish police surround a car after the shootout in the resort city of Cambils. AP / Jaume Sellart

What we know so far

• 14 dead, 130 injured after a van mounts the kerb in Barcelona
• One NSW woman in serious but stable condition in hospital
• Two Australian men also affected
• Four arrested, four suspects still at large as Islamic State group claims responsibility
• Five killed in firefight in Cambrils, two hours’ from Barcelona 
• Cambrils attackers were carrying bomb belts

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says Australians should pray for a seven-year-old Sydney boy missing after the Barcelona terror attack.

Julian Cadman became separated from his seriously injured mother, Jom, during the confusion on the Las Ramblas tourist mecca on Friday.

Addressing the Tasmanian Liberal Party Conference on Saturday, Mr Turnbull spoke of the anguish the boy’s family would be suffering.

“I think we should all, in a our quiet moments, say a prayer for that little boy,” Mr Turnbull said.

“All of us as parents know the anguish his father is going through and his whole family is going through, as they rush to seek to find him in Barcelona.”

Family and friends of the seven-year-old are pleading on social media for help to find him. The mother and son were in Spain for a wedding this weekend.

Ms Cadman’s father-in-law, Tony Cadman, says Ms Cadman is in a serious but stable condition in hospital, but his gravest fears are for his grandson.

At least 100 people were injured and 13 killed in the Barcelona terror attack when terrorists used a van to run down pedestrians on the Las Ramblas thoroughfare.

Four Australians, including Ms Cadman, were injured, according to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Two young men from Victoria were also struck by the van but received only minor injuries and were quickly discharged from hospital.

Little boy lost: Julian Cadman’s family are frantic to hear some good news.

Julian’s father, Andrew Cadman, who said he had spoken to the pair mere hours before the attack, left for Barcelona on Friday night to search for his son.

Authorities are piecing together the outline of a plot they are certain might have claimed many more lives if not for an accidental explosion at a home being used as a suspected bomb factory.

The initial toll of 13 rose to 14 after the death of a woman who had been injured in a related attack in the seaside town of Cambrils.

That second attack, hours after the first, appeared at first to have solved the mystery of the Barcelona van’s driver, who escaped the scene of carnage on foot before re-appearing in Cambrils, where he is said to have armed himself with a knife and joined four other Islamist terrorists in a second van attack that claimed the life of a female pedestrian.

The five assailants had an axe and knives in their car and wore fake explosive belts, police said. A single police officer shot four of the men.

Later, however, authorities conceded the ongoing investigation had made their initial speculation about the Barcelona driver seem dubious.

“It is still a possibility but, unlike four hours ago, it is losing weight,” said Josep Lluis Trapero, police chief in Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia.

Trapero had earlier said the investigation was focusing on a house in Alcanar, southwest of Barcelona, which was razed by an explosion shortly before midnight on Wednesday.

Police believe the house was being used to plan one or several large-scale attacks in Barcelona, possibly using a large number of butane gas canisters stored there.

When the suspected bomb factory was destroyed, police believe fellow conspirators decided to launch the Barcelona and Cambrils attacks before police could identify members of the terror cell and arrest them.

The Barcelona rampage which began Spain’s day of horror unfolded late in the afternoon at the popular Las Ramblas tourist destination, where the white Fiat raced through the city’s busiest tourist area, killing and maiming sightseers and locals.

Police initially believed the driver of the van to be Driss Oukabir, of Moroccan descent, but have since confirmed that his younger brother, Moussa, thought to be only 17, may have used his brother’s ID to rent two vans in his name.

The van attack in Barcelona was the country’s deadliest since 2004, when Al Qaeda-inspired bombers killed 192 people in coordinated attacks on Madrid’s commuter trains.

Barcelona attack
Police officers evacuate people from the area as they take security measures Photo: Getty
The van which ploughed into the crowd, killing at least 13 people and injuring around 100 others is towed away Photo: Getty
A damaged van is surrounded by forensics officers in the Las Ramblas Photo: Getty
Experts say fears about being the victim of a terrorist attack in Australia may be unfounded. Source: Getty
Witnesses say the van wove through crowds at high speed as people stampeded away. Photo: AP
A woman cries after a van ploughed into pedestrians, killing at least 16 people. Photo: Getty
At least 13 are dead and more than 50 people injured following a horror attack on Barcelona's busiest street. Photo: AAP
Women flee the scene. Photo: Getty
A police officer and a man in a bulletproof vest assist an elderly woman as the Las Ramblas area is evacuated. Photo: Getty
People band together to help the injured leave the scene. Photo: AAP
A person is helped by Spanish policemen and two men after a van ploughed into the crowd in Barcelona. Photo: Getty

-with ABC and AAP

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