Police in the Netherlands have detained the driver of a van carrying gas bottles as a concert by a US rock band in Rotterdam was cancelled on Wednesday night after to a terror tip-off. A Spanish counterterrorism official said the Spanish-registered van was not believed to be connected to the attacks that killed 15 people in Barcelona and Cambrils last week.

The Barcelona terror cell behind last week's van attack planned to use explosives against major monuments including the city's famous Sagrada Familia church, one of the suspects has told a court. Mohamed Houli Chemlal, 21, who survived an explosion at an alleged bomb factory the day before the van atrocities said the Islamist gang had been preparing “an attack of larger dimensions”.

Police were searching on Saturday for the driver of a van that killed 13 people when it plowed into a crowd in Barcelona and were trying to determine whether two other suspected Islamist militants linked to the attack had died or were at large.The Spanish government said it considered it had dismantled the cell behind Thursday's Barcelona rampage and an attack early on Friday in the Catalan seaside town of Cambrils.

On Thursday afternoon, a van rammed into a crowd of people in Barcelona, killing 13 people and injuring at least 100.It's the worst attack on Spanish soil since the 2004 Madrid bombings, which killed 191 people and injured more than 1,800. The deadly assault was followed hours later by a second possible terror attack in Cambrils, south of Barcelona, where police shot dead five suspected terrorists.

Donald Trump has faced bipartisan criticism after failing to explicitly condemn the role of white supremacists in clashes with counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, that culminated in a car running into a crowd, killing at least one person.

Sierra Leone's president has appealed for urgent help after torrential rain triggered massive mudslides in the capital, Freetown. Rescue workers have uncovered nearly 400 bodies. And at least 11 people are reported to have been killed by a falling tree during a religious festival on Madeira. Another 35 people are also said to have suffered crush injuries as they waited for a street procession to begin after a church service as part of the Catholic festival.

An 8-year-old girl was killed and at least 13 people were injured when a driver slammed his car into the sidewalk cafe of a pizza restaurant in a small town east of Paris, authorities said Monday. The driver was immediately arrested in what was the latest of several attacks in France and elsewhere using a vehicle as a weapon. Russia's FSB security service said Monday that it had captured a gang planning major attacks on Moscow transport networks and shopping centres, directed by members of the Islamic State jihadist group from Syria.