Blast Kills 1 at TWA Madrid Office : Caller Links Explosion to Reagan Attack on Terrorism

A bomb exploded in the basement of a building housing TWA and British Airways offices in the crowded center of Madrid today, killing one woman and injuring 27 other people, including a California teen-ager, police said.

A previously unknown group in Beirut linked the attack with President Reagan’s threat to strike out against terrorism.

A few minutes after the blast, two other bombs went off at the Royal Jordanian Airlines offices only 200 yards away, but there were no injuries in those explosions, police said. A third bomb found at the Royal Jordanian Airlines was defused.

In Beirut, where the 17-day ordeal of TWA Flight 847 ended with the release of the 39 American hostages over the weekend, an anonymous caller said a group called “The Organization of the Oppressed” carried out the TWA office attack.

The caller said the blast was in reply to Reagan’s threat to strike against terrorists.

“Let Reagan know that our hands will reach the whole world, and we shall never remain silent after this. We thank all the alliances which helped us to carry out the bombing of the TWA office,” the caller told an international news agency.

Signed Statement

Hijackers who had held the TWA airliner at Beirut signed a statement made to reporters on Sunday as “The Oppressed of the Earth.”

Besides the release of 735 Lebanese prisoners in Israel, the Shia Muslim hijackers in Beirut had demanded that the Spanish government free two Shias charged with plotting to assassinate a Libyan diplomat in Spain.

In the end, however, the hijackers did not press that demand. Spain refused to release the two men, and they were each sentenced last week to 23 years in prison.

In the explosion today at the TWA and British Airways offices on Madrid Gran Via Avenue, a woman of unknown nationality was killed and 27 people were injured, including Sydney Bridges, 17, of Ontario, Calif., who was cut by flying glass.

Minutes after the first bomb exploded, a man with a machine gun opened fire on the offices of the Jordanian airline, police said.

Died at Hospital

The bombing casualties were rushed to two Madrid hospitals. Police did not immediately identify the woman who, they said, died shortly after her arrival at one of the hospitals.

An American woman was among those injured, police said. However, further confirmation of victims’ identities was not immediately available.

Police said no injuries were reported in the shooting incident at the Jordanian airline offices. Police sources said a man with a machine gun shot at the office from a window in a nearby 18-story building.

The sources said the office windows were hit. Police said two people were arrested in connection with the shooting, and said they may have been responsible for planting the bombs in the Jordanian airlines office. The nationality of the suspects was not immediately available, although witnesses said they appeared to be Arab.

The two bombs that exploded at the Jordanian Airlines office caused no injuries, police said. They said a third bomb was defused.