Barcelona police raids house of an Imam

Barcelona [Spain] Aug 20 (ANI): Barcelona Police has raided house of an Imam in connection with the terror attack in the city.

Meanwhile, the hunt for the man suspected of driving the van in Barcelona - 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub - continues.

Sky News reported that the raid was conducted as the police believed that Imam may have radicalised the Barcelona and Cambrils attackers.

At the time of raid, Imam- Abdelbaki es Satty- was not in the flat and his room partner told newspaper La Vanguardia that es Satty left his home on Tuesday because he was going to Morocco, and did not hear from him again.

It is reported that Abdelbaki es Satty is the ringleader of the terror cell and is responsible for directing the terrorists to commit the attacks in Spain which killed 14 people, reports Sky News.

Es Satty was reportedly last seen on Tuesday and is said to be about 40 years old, but one line of inquiry being pursued by police is that he may have been killed in an explosion in Alcanar on Wednesday night, adds Sky News.

He started teaching in mosques in his local area of Ripoll in 2015 and was part of the local Muslim community, but his neighbours told El Pais his teachings about Islam were not radical.

They said he taught Moroccan-dialect Arabic to children and was very reserved.

The president of the mosque where es Satty preached, Ali Yassine, said he had not seen es Satty since June when he announced he was returning to Morocco for three months.

Pictures have emerged of the inside of es Satty's flat, which show scraps of paper covered in notes strewn around, a picture of a mosque on the wall and a mattress on the living room floor.

Speaking anonymously, a police official said investigators believed es Satty might have been a second fatal victim of a botched bomb-making operation in a house south of Barcelona on Wednesday.

Emergency services had already said that one person died and another was injured in a blast that destroyed the building.

Police believe the house in Alcanar was being used as a makeshift bomb factory to plan the attacks in Barcelona, possibly using large butane gas canisters in even larger-scale attacks, reports Sky News. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI