Spain Attacks: Canadian Grandfather Named as Latest Las Ramblas Victim
A Canadian grandfather is the latest victim of the Spain terror attacks to be named, after his daughter released a statement hailing the efforts of those who fought to save his life.
Ian Moore Wilson was on holiday with his wife of 53 years, Valerie, when terrorists drove a van into crowds along the Barcelona thoroughfare of Las Ramblas on Thursday afternoon.
Their daughter, Fiona, a Vancouver police officer, issued a statement on Friday thanking bystanders and emergency workers who cared for her mother and tried to save her father’s life, and those who had offered their sympathy and support.
She described her father as “compassionate, generous, adventurous, and always game for a lively debate, a good book, exploring new places, and a proper-sized pint”.
Earlier, an American man was named as among the dead. The family of Jared Tucker, 42, from Walnut Creek, California, said he was among the 13 people killed in the Las Ramblas attack.
He had left his wife for a moment shortly before the attack started. The couple, on a tour of Europe to celebrate their first wedding anniversary, had been enjoying drinks on a pavement cafe.
“Next thing I know there’s screaming, yelling,” his wife Heidi Nunes, 40, told NBC News after she failed to find her husband after the attack. “I got pushed inside the souvenir kiosk and stayed there hiding while everybody kept running by, screaming.”
On Friday night his family said that Nunes had identified his body. His father, Daniel Tucker, who worked with his son in the family’s pool business, told the New York Daily News: “It’s just something we really just don’t understand. I don’t know what else to say.”
Another victim was an Italian man who was holding the hand of his five-year-old son moments before he was killed.
Bruno Gulotta, 35, died on the street in front of his son Alessandro and wife Martina, Italian media reported.
Martina, who was carrying their one-year-old daughter, Aria, in a sling-style baby-carrier, told friends that she had pulled Alessandro to safety at the last moment.
The family, from Legnano, near Milan, were on holiday in the Catalan city.
Gulotta worked in sales and marketing for computer company Tom’s Hardware. The company said his violent death had left his wife facing “trials no one should have to bear”.
“We put ourselves in the shoes of little Alessandro, who is about to start elementary school knowing his and his family’s life will never be the same again. And we think of baby Aria … who will never know her dad,” his colleagues said in a statement.
An emergency services spokesman said 130 people were injured in the two attacks, the first at Las Ramblas on Thursday and the second in the Catalan seaside town of Cambrils early on Friday morning. Seventeen are in a critical condition, with another 30 in a serious condition.
The nationalities of the dead and injured testify to Barcelona’s popularity as a global tourist destination. They came from at least 34 different countries, including Australia, Britain, Belgium, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Honduras, Morocco, Pakistan, Canada and the US. A Spanish woman was killed in Cambrils.
He was on holiday with his girlfriend, Marta Scomazzon, who is among three injured Italians, having suffered fractures in the attack.
Scomazzon, whose parents have travelled to Barcelona to be with her, told the Italian news agency Ansa: “We were walking together and then the van hit us. I fell and realised that Luca wasn’t there any more. I didn’t see him again. His body was swept away.”
Russo’s sister Chiara posted images on Facebook of her smiling brother, alongside those of his body lying on the ground in Barcelona. “Help to bring him home, I beg you,’’ she wrote.
“Italy will remember Bruno Gulotta and Luca Russo and expresses its solidarity with their families,” the prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, said in a tweet. “Freedom will triumph over barbarism and terrorism.”
Also among the dead was Elke Vanbockrijck, 44, a Belgian on holiday with her husband and two sons.
Vanbockrijck regularly ferried her sons, 10 and 14, to football practice at KFC Heur Tongeren. A statement from the club said: “She was often at the club, and was committed to our club. We will always remember her as a happy woman, a caring mother and loving wife. Elke will be missed.”
The first named Spanish victim was Francisco López RodrÃguez, 60, originally from Granada. He had been walking along La Rambla with his wife, who is believed to be seriously injured.
Since then, two more have been named. Pepita Codina, 75, was identified as among the dead by the mayor of Sant Hipòlit de Voltregà , a small town near Barcelona where she was from. Xavier Vilamala posted messages of condolence on Twitter and Instagram. Sara Sanchez Crosas, who said she was her hairdresser, also posted about the news of her death on Facebook.
Ana MarÃa Suárez was the sole fatality of the attack in the seaside resort of Cambrils. The 61-year-old, from Zaragoza, north-east Spain, was with her husband and sister, who were both injured in the attack. The Spanish royal family’s Twitter account confirmed her death, offering their thoughts to her family.
The youngest victim of the attacks was thought to be a three-year-old girl, who died shortly after being taken to hospital. A six-year-old girl was taken to hospital with a cerebral haemorrhage, an official at Vall d’Hebron University hospital told the New York Times. Her nationality was not known.
Others are searching frantically for family and friends. Seven-year-old Julian Alessandro Cadman, a British-Australian dual national, is missing after he became separated from his mother, Jom, during the chaos. Tony Cadman said Jom, his daughter-in-law, was in a serious but stable condition in hospital.
The family is appealing for information on Facebook. “Missing in Barcelona,” reads a Facebook message posted by Tony Cadman, asking users to share a picture of Julian, who is pictured smiling and wearing a green jumper.
France has confirmed that 26 of its citizens were injured, with 11 in a serious condition. Three Dutch nationals were also injured.
The UK Foreign Office said it was assisting a small number of injured Britons, and a Greek diplomat reported that three of its nationals had been wounded: a woman and her two children. China said two people from Taiwan were being treated for severe injuries, and confirmed that a person from Hong Kong had minor injuries.
Australia’s foreign minister, Julie Bishop, said four Australians had been hurt – two women in a serious but stable condition, and two men who were “directly affected” and had gone back to their hotel to seek medical attention.
Throughout the night on Thursday there were urgent appeals on social media for English, Italian and French translators to go to hospitals and clinics to help medical staff treating dozens of non-Spanish-speaking victims.
A man originally from the Philippines and resident in Ireland, who was on holiday with his wife and two children, was hit on his side, but his injuries were not life-threatening, Emmanuel Fernandez, the consul general of the Philippines embassy in Madrid, told the Irish broadcaster RTÉ.