24 Killed, 82 Hurt in Blast at Spain Restaurant

At least 24 people were killed and 82 were injured Friday night when a suspected bomb blast leveled a crowded restaurant popular with U.S. servicemen from an air base outside Madrid. Two of the dead and 12 of the injured were believed to be Americans.

Spanish officials, police and eyewitnesses said they believe that the explosion, which occurred shortly before midnight, was caused by a bomb. There were about 300 diners in the El Descanso restaurant, situated on a main highway nine miles northeast of Madrid, when the explosion occurred.

An explosives expert with the Madrid municipal government said he believes that the blast had been caused by a bomb that was made up of over 40 pounds of plastic explosives. The blast blew out the facade of the building, collapsing the roof and two upper floors.

Madrid’s Antena 3 radio and two Basque country newspapers said they had received calls in which purported members of the Basque separatist guerrilla group ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom) claimed responsibility for the explosion.

But the radio later said a police expert on guerrilla activity had examined a recording of the call and pronounced it false.

It quoted the expert as saying the call claimed that the bomb was timed to go off at breakfast time when the restaurant did not open until noon.

Spanish national radio said it had received unconfirmed reports that two of the dead and 12 of those injured were Americans from the nearby air base at Torrejon de Ardoz, one of four Spanish military bases at which about 12,000 U.S. servicemen are stationed.

The U.S. Air Force public affairs office at Torrejon said 10 American personnel had been transported to the base hospital with minor injuries. Other Americans were reportedly taken to hospitals in Madrid.

A duty officer at Madrid police headquarters said that he could not confirm reports on the blast’s cause until bomb squad experts completed their work, but he added:

“Judging by the characteristics of the explosion--the gas pipes were intact, for instance--it looks like a bomb.”

Madrid’s civil governor, Jose Maria Rodriguez Colorado, also said it could have been a bomb.