Spanish police searched on Sunday for the man behind the wheel in the Barcelona van attack that killed 13 people, amid growing signs members of the militant group had connections elsewhere in Europe.

Police said security operations were under way in Catalonia and on the French border as they searched Moroccan-born Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, the only one of 12 suspects still at large who they believe may have crossed into France.

Others implicated in the attack have been arrested, shot by police or killed in an explosion at a house in Catalonia a day before Thursday's van attack on Las Ramblas, Barcelona's most famous boulevard.