Madrid Blast Injures 14 on Eve of Basque Vote; Rebels Blamed
A car bomb blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA exploded in central Madrid early Saturday, injuring 14 people just one day before bitterly contested elections in Spain’s northern region.
An anonymous caller in the name of ETA, an acronym for Basque Homeland and Freedom, warned authorities eight minutes before the blast, Interior Minister Mariano Rajoy said.
The bomb went off in one of the Spanish capital’s busiest roads, Goya Street. “It could have been a massacre,” Rajoy said at the scene. Local media reported that the car contained about 66 pounds of explosives.
A security guard was seriously hurt, though his wounds were not life-threatening, and all other injuries were minor, emergency officials said.
The explosion demolished the facade of a nearby bank, shattered windows throughout the area and left the twisted remains of the car littering the street.
The bomb went off at midnight as campaigning for the Basque parliamentary ballot officially ended and a “Day of Reflection”--free of electioneering and opinion polls--was getting underway.
ETA did not claim responsibility for the latest bombing--it usually waits weeks to do so.
But politicians across the spectrum immediately blamed the guerrilla group.
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