A West Charleton man has received an email from his nephew, who was in Barcelona at the time of the recent terror attack.

Jeremy Brown received an email from his nephew a week after the attack that has now left 16 people dead and around 120 injured when two vehicle attacks took place in Las Ramblas, Barcelona, and the coastal resort of Cambrils on Thursday, August 17.

Jeremy’s nephew, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote: “Things have returned to normal pretty quickly here in Barcelona. There has been a street festival called ’Fiestas de Gracia’ since, and people have been out in force, which has been great to see.

“A lot of effort was put into the organisation, and it also sends the right signals to the terrorists i.e. ‘You will not win or stop us having our bit of fun’ etc.

“It would have been a great shame if things had changed in Barcelona because it is a fantastic city. It reminds me of Rio de Janeiro, in that it has the mountains, the beaches and the weather, and these are all accompanied by a fun-loving, high-energy culture.

“The differences are probably that Barcelona is more organised, and the food is better. On the other hand, nothing really has that ’feel’ that Rio has, especially during the carnival season.

“From a personal perspective, I love the Latin culture and being somewhere where people are happy, know how to enjoy life, and see the positive in things. I’m not saying that we British don’t; however the Spanish seem to rather more.

“I also love the feeling of being somewhere where you are constantly learning, discovering knew things, and where life is just so very different.”

Jeremy’s nephew lives and works in the Spanish capital, very close to Las Ramblas, but was luckily not caught up in the attack as it happened. He’s also not a stranger to disasters, while he travelled around the world, Jeremy said he often ends up in “slightly dodgy” places, and helped out during floods in Chile earlier in the year.

Just this past weekend, on August 26, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Barcelona’s Passeig de Gràcia, behind the slogan ‘no tinc por’ - ‘I am not afraid’, in a show of defiance after the recent attacks.