(Reuters/Ricardo Ordonez )
Civil guard barracks deamaged by car bomb in Spain
More than 60 police officers, their families and neighbours were injured when a car bomb ripped through a barracks in the northern Spanish city of Burgos at about 4am local time today, emergency services said.
No one was killed in the blast, which blew down the wall of the barracks and shattered windows in nearby houses and a local police station. The Spanish authorities suspect that Eta, the armed Basque separatists, carried out the attack.
"It's extremely lucky that no one died, because it was a terrible explosion," Carlos Molero, spokesman for the emergency services, told The Times. "We got the first call at 4.01am and within ten minutes we'd had 60 calls. I think the whole city called because the bomb was heard a long way off."
The bomb was planted in a vehicle parked on wasteland at the back of the barracks, the side of the building where police officers and their families were sleeping.
No one was seriously injured, although no warning call was made before the bomb exploded. Most of the victims had cuts and bruises from broken glass, and police and ambulance workers took them to the city's hospital or a local health centre for treatment. Psychologists arrived to attend those caught up in the blast.
"There was glass everywhere, glass below the bed — you had to put your slippers on because you would cut yourself," one man woken by the bomb shattering the windows of his home told the Spanish television channel CNN+.
"The first thing I did was go outside, because I have two vans from my shop and there was no sign of them," another neighbour said. "Everything had gone flying."
Police are investigating whether the vehicle was a van stolen in France, the Spanish daily El Mundo reported, citing sources close to the police inquiry.
EtA has killed more than 800 people in its 40-year armed campaign for an independent state in northern Spain and southwest France. The group, which was formed during the rule of General Franco, when the Basque language and culture was repressed, has continued to plague Spain's democracy.
Eta is suspected of responsibility for eight explosions this year, including a car bomb in June that killed a policeman.
Other attacks have been carried out against business people involved in contracts to build the high-speed train links between Madrid and the Basque region. Eta claims faster rail connections to the Spanish capital are against the interests of the Basque residents.
Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, the Spanish Interior Minister, who was due to arrive in Burgos at 11am after being told of the attack, has in the past said that Eta is at its weakest ever.
Eta is under pressure to show it can still carry out bombings and shootings after repeated arrests of its leadership. In April, police arrested Jurdan Martitegi, the fourth Eta commander to be captured in less than a year.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister, called off peace talks with Eta after the group planted a massive car bomb at Madrid airport in December 2006. The bomb killed two Ecuadorians.
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