Brit tourists hiring cars in Spain set to have their data shared with cops under new anti-terror law
Rental car firms will have to register their customers on a database the government can access, officials have revealed.
COSTA holidaymakers who want to hire cars face having their data shared with Spanish police looking for potential terrorists under new government plans.
Under the proposals rental car firms will have to register their customers on a database the government can access.
It is expected checks will be made before the vehicle is released for hire, although specific details have not yet been released.
Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido announced the plans at a press conference where he said the idea was to "identify people who show patterns of behaviour compatible with terrorists".
News of the planned Spanish crackdown comes after it emerged drivers in Britain would face extra checks when renting cars and vans to ensure they are not extremists.
The 22-year-old terrorist who mowed down and killed 14 people in Barcelona’s famous Las Ramblas in August was driving a rented Renault Kangoo van.
Younes Abouyaaqoub, shot dead by police after he went on the run following the massacre, was secretly buried in an unmarked grave his native city of Mrirt in Morocco earlier this month.
The new Spanish legislation governing rental car firms is expected to be in place next year.
Mr Zoido said the measures, part of a package of anti-terror measures including tighter controls on the sale of gas cylinders, were in “their concluding stages.”
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They are also expected to affect tourists staying at Airbnb properties, with homeowners currently renting rooms or houses being legally obliged to register the names of clients on a similar database to the one rental car firms will have to use.
Several major terrorist attacks in Europe this year, including the ones in London as well as Barcelona and the nearby seaside resort of Cambrils, involved either only vehicles or vehicles followed by stabbings.
The carnage began in the Cote d’Azur resort of Nice in July 2016 when a cargo truck ploughed into a crowd on Bastille Day and killed 86 people.
As well as rented vehicles, the terror cell responsible for the August 17 attacks in Barcelona and nearby Cambrils which Abouyaaqoub was part of, were planning to use butane gas cylinders stored at a house Alcanar near Tarragona to blow up iconic landmarks including the Sagrada Familia.
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