Digne aided Barcelona van attack injured: reports

The 24-year-old Barcelona defender, who lives near the central Las Ramblas boulevard where the attack took place, raced to the scene with napkins and water, daily newspaper El Pais reported.

“Digne helped the injured, applied tourniquets to arms and legs and cooperated with first aid until ambulances arrived and police requested, as a precaution, that Las Ramblas be evacuated,” the newspaper said.

Tourniquets are used to apply pressure to stop bleeding. Makeshift versions can be fashioned out of napkins, shirts or shoelaces.

“The Frenchman does not want to talk about it. He does not consider himself to be a hero for applying tourniquets to treat injured arms and legs,” sports daily Mundo Deportivo reported.

A white van ploughed through crowds on Thursday for more than 500 metres on Las Ramblas, leaving bodies strewn along the boulevard as others fled for their lives.

Police on Monday shot dead the suspected driver of the van, 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub, at a village about 60 kilometres (37 miles) west of Barcelona.

Digne joined Barcelona from Paris Saint-Germain in July 2016 on a five-year contract.