Inside the terrorist's lair: Chilling photos show where 'radical imam' plotted Barcelona attacks
Photos of radical imam Abdelbaki Es Satty's Catalonia apartment have been released with police believing he was the ringleader of the group responsible for the Barcelona terrorist attack.
The series of images show his small refuge in Ripoll, almost 100km north of Barcelona near the French border, that was raided by authorities on the weekend with a search warrant confirming the flat belonged to a man named Abdelbaki Es Satty.
Police believe Satty brainwashed the group of young Moroccans who ploughed a car into a crowd of people on the popular Las Ramblas tourist-strip in Barcelona last Thursday.
He is now thought to be one of the terrorists killed in a bomb blast at another house in Alcanar.
PICTURED: A building allegedly used as a mosque by imam Abdelbaki es Satty in Ripoll. Source: PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images
Police believe the 12 suspects in the terror attacks were drawn together by an imam to carry out the alleged plot to murder on a massive scale – an extraordinary secret for 12 people to keep for months on end.
In the suspected extremist cell's final days, the group accumulated more than 100 gas canisters, blew up a house in a botched effort to make bombs, drove a van through Barcelona's storied Las Ramblas promenade and attacked beachside tourists, Spanish authorities said.
Satty's flatmate said he left his home on Tuesday, telling him he was going to Morocco.
He had not heard from him since.
Photos of the apartment show a basic living space including a mattress on the floor and an old-school TV.
There's a kitchen and a bathroom with what appears to be just the bare minimum items needed to live.
Photos show the living situation of Es Satty. Source: PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images
The house appears to contain the bare minimum. Source: PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images
Now, Ripoll is cut off by police roadblocks as the search for an alleged cell member thought to still be on the run continues.
Families and friends in the town are torn between horror at the bloodshed and grief for the children they once knew whom allegedly grew up to be mass murderers.
"We don't know whether to cry and mourn them or what to do," said Wafa Marsi, who knew the attackers and stood with their weeping mothers on Saturday as they clustered in small groups in the town square.
"They have killed 13 or 14 people and wounded a hundred, and we don't know what to do."
PICTURED: The living room space after police raided the premises. Source: PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images
PICTURED: The bathroom of Abdelbaki Es Satty. Source: PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images
A total of 13 people were killed in the Catalan capital and another woman was killed in nearby Cambrils by members of the same group, with Islamic State (ISIS) claiming responsibility for the joint attacks.
None of the 12 suspects had any known history of violent extremism, Spanish police have said.
Trapero has confirmed the imam was part of the investigation, but said police had no solid evidence that he was responsible for radicalising the young men in the cell.
PICTURED: The kitchen of Abdelbaki Es Satty. Source:PAU BARRENA/AFP/Getty Images
Es Satty in June abruptly quit working at a mosque in Ripoll and has not been seen since.
