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Car bomb explodes at Spanish airport
A car bomb has exploded in an airport parking lot in the northern Spanish city of Santander, police say. Police say it is the latest in a string of explosions believed to be the work of Basque separatists.
| The usual suspects, doing the usual things... |
No-one was injured in the attack, which came after an anonymous caller claiming to speak for the Basque separatist organisation ETA warned of an explosive device at the outdoor parking lot. Police had time to fully evacuate the car park and airport terminal before the powerful device went off, decimating a dozen cars parked nearby and damaging about another 40.
| How do you "decimate" a dozen cars? To "decimate" implies killing one in ten... |
The pro-independence Basque newspaper Gara confirmed it had received an anonymous tip-off from a caller claiming to speak for armed ETA separatists and had immediately alerted police. Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes, who travelled to the scene of the incident, hit out at Basque extremists, who are believed to be waging a campaign of summer violence to disrupt Spain's lucrative tourism industry. "Once again, ETA had tried to sow terror and it is currently trying to do all it can with the resources it has," Mr Acebes said. He said the organisation was "using roaming commandos and its fixed command structures in the Basque country and Navarra," both northern Spanish provinces, to wage attacks on touristic targets. Window panes in the airport terminal were shattered and part of the outside of the building seriously damaged by the car bomb, which was planted about 20 metres from the terminal's main entrance. Acebes said the blast involved a "large quantity of explosives."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-07-28 |
