Barcelona attacks: Video captures moment terrorist gets back up after being shot

''Pop, pop', a couple of shots and he fell down and then he stood back up...and he started taunting and smiling'

Footage has emerged of the moment a suspected terrorist wearing a fake suicide vest was shot to the ground by police in Cambrils before standing back up seconds later.

Five suspected terrorists were shot dead in the seaside town 70 kilometres south of Barcelona where attackers ploughed a van into a crowd hours earlier, killing at least 14.

The video captured the tense standoff as police struggled to stop one of the suspects who paced and shouted.

The attacker, who has not been identified, can be seen running back and forth as he appears to make an Islamic gesture - appropriated by Isis - with the forefinger of his right hand.

Dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, he can be seen charging across the road towards the central reservation as officers fire shots at him, eventually causing him to fall to the floor.

But seconds later, he can be seen getting back to his feet and charging at police once more.

Fitzroy Davies, a British man on holiday in the region, witnessed the "horrendous" shootout.

“Police jumped out the car and started shouting at the guy, he was saying something else again, and then 'pop, pop', a couple of shots and he fell down and then he stood back up and then he stepped over the fence and he started like taunting and smiling,” he told BBC Radio 4.

“Then he carried on walking to the police and then they gave it to him again, a couple more shots, and then he fell to the ground and that’s when I decided to go.”

Authorities said the Cambrils suspects were linked to an attack late Thursday afternoon on Barcelona's Las Ramblas area and an earlier explosion in the town of Alcanar in which one person was killed.

Six people were injured in the attempted attack on Cambrils, but the regional police said they could not yet confirm how.

Local media have reported a vehicle crashed into a police car and nearby civilians and that police shot the attackers, included one brandishing a knife.

A spokeswoman for the force said that officers shot dead four alleged perpetrators, with a fifth later dying from injuries sustained during the raid.