*********, Spain — The Latest on the van that ran into a crowd in *********’s *********** district (all times local):

9:40 p.m.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the van ****** in ********* that officials say ****** 12 people and ******* many others.

A statement carried by the extremist group’s media arm – the Aamaq news agency – says Thursday’s ****** was carried out by “soldiers of the Islamic State.”

It says the ****** was in response to IS calls for its followers to target countries participating in the coalition trying to drive the extremist group from Syria and Iraq.

The statement provided no further details about the *********.

9:25 p.m.

The ****** force for Spain’s Catalonia region says a car knocked down two ****** officers at a traffic checkpoint in *********.

The Mossos d’Esquadra force did not indicate if the ******** was related to the van ****** in the city’s *********** district on Thursday that left 12 people **** and dozens *******.

********* ****** later said in a tweet that the car and its driver were intercepted about 10 kilometres (6 miles) outside of the downtown area where the original ****** happened.

Local media reports said a white Ford Focus ran over the officers and that a person from the car was shot and ****** by regional troopers.

Neither the city nor regional ****** have said whether a suspect was shot.

9:15 p.m.

The president of Spain’s Catalonia region says ****** have arrested two people in the van ****** in *********’s bustling *********** district.

Carles Puigdemont also gave updated ******** figures during a brief news conference Thursday night.

Puigdemont says 12 people are confirmed **** and at least 80 have been hospitalized since the van jumped a sidewalk and swerved through a busy pedestrian area.

The region’s interior minister had tweeted earlier that 13 people had **** in the ******.

********* Mayor Ada Colau says a moment of silence will be held in the city’s main square at noon Friday “to show that we are not scared and we are more united that ever.”

8:35 p.m.

A regional government official in Spain says 13 people have been ****** in the van ****** at a historic shopping and tourist area of *********.

Catalan Interior Minister official Joaquim Forn also said on Twitter that more than 50 people were ******* during the ******.

Regional ****** now are evacuating stores and bars in the *********** district.

The move came right after ****** announced they had arrested one suspect and were “treating him as a *********.”

*********, Spain — A white van jumped the sidewalk Thursday in *********’s historic *********** district, ******* and injuring several people as it plowed into a summer crowd of tourists and residents, ****** said. The El Pais newspaper said ****** were treating the ***** as a ****** ******.

****** cordoned off the broad, popular street, ordering stores and nearby Metro and train stations to close. They asked people to stay away from the area so as not to get in the way of ********* services. A helicopter hovered over the scene.

Quoting unnamed ****** sources, El Pais said the two perpetrators of the ***** were holed up in a bar in Tallers Street. There was no immediate ****** confirmation of the report.

Catalan ****** tweeted that “there are mortal ******* and ******* from the *****” without specifying numbers. The *********-based La Vanguardia newspaper reported at least one **** and 20 ******* from the van.

In a photograph on public broadcaster RTVE, three people were lying on the ground in the street of the northern Spanish city Thursday afternoon, apparently being helped by ****** and others. Other videos showed five people down and recorded people screaming as they fled the scene.

***********, a street of stalls and shops that cuts through the centre of *********, is one of the city’s top tourist destinations. People walk down a wide, pedestrian path in the centre of the street but cars can travel on either side.

Keith Fleming, an American who lives in *********, was watching TV in his building just off *********** when he heard a noise and went out to his balcony.

“I saw women and children just running and they looked terrified,” he said.

There was a bang, possibly from someone rolling down a store shutter, and more people ran by. Then ****** arrived and pushed everyone down the street, a full block away. Even people leaning out of doors were being told to go back inside, he said.

He said ****** are there with their **** drawn and **** ****** are at the end of his block. He said his street is now deserted.

“It’s just kind of a tense situation,” Fleming said. “Clearly people were scared.”

Cars, trucks and vans have been the ****** of choice in multiple extremist ******* in Europe in the last year.

The most ****** was the driver of a tractor-trailer who targeted ******** Day revelers in the southern French city of Nice in July 2016, ******* 86 people. In December 2016, 12 people **** after a driver used a hijacked trick to drive into a Christmas market in Berlin.

There have been multiple ******* this year in London, where a man in a rented SUV plowed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, ******* four people before he ran onto the grounds of Parliament and stabbed an unarmed ****** officer to ***** in March.

Four other men drove onto the sidewalk of London Bridge, unleashing a rampage with knives that ****** eight people in June. Another man also drove into pedestrians leaving a London mosque later in June.