‘I prefer him in prison or dead:’ Mother of Barcelona attack suspect calls on him to surrender

“I would like him to return, to stop what he has been doing. I’m not responsible for all that. I want him to surrender to police. I prefer him to be in prison or even dead rather than killing other people,” the woman told French broadcaster BFM TV on Monday.

The 22-year-old Moroccan is being hunted by police, and may have fled north into France. Abouyaaqoub is the only person unaccounted for in the investigation into an extremist cell of 12 people identified by Spanish police, force spokesman Albert Oliva told a local radio station on Sunday.

Catalan police have put up scores of roadblocks across the province in a manhunt for Abouyaaqoub, but the suspect has so far eluded law enforcement.

On Monday, police released photos of Abouyaaqoub, who is thought to have plowed the van into crowds in Barcelona last Thursday.

Abouyaaqoub fled the scene on foot before later stabbing a man to death and taking his car to escape, police in Catalonia said on Friday, Reuters reports.

Thirteen people died in the van rampage on Las Ramblas. Hours later, another woman was killed in the seaside resort Cambrils in a separate attack by suspected Islamist militants.

The combined death toll from the attacks stands at 15, including the Spanish man stabbed in his car as he was parking.