Spanish official says 2 arrests made in attack

The president of Spain's Catalonia region says police have arrested two people in the van attack in Barcelona's bustling Las Ramblas district.

Carles Puigdemont also gave updated casualty figures during a brief news conference tonight.

Puigdemont says 12 people are confirmed dead and at least 80 have been hospitalised 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 died in the attack.

Barcelona 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." Earlier, the police force for Spain's Catalonia region said it has arrested a man in the Barcelona van attack and is "treating him as a terrorist."

The police force announced the arrest on Twitter.

It denied earlier media reports that officers had a suspect surrounded in a bar.

The tweet said: "There is nobody held up in any bar in the center of Barcelona. We have arrested one man and we are treating him as a terrorist."

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)