Spanish TV broadcasts footage of Madrid attacks

SPANISH TV yesterday broadcast chilling security-camera footage of the Madrid train bombings in which 191 people died. It showed at least one bomb exploding inside a train at Atocha station.

The footage was believed to mark the first public broadcast of actual video images of the attacks in March.

The video footage starts with dazed commuters milling about on a smoke-shrouded platform after one explosion. The time on the security camera said 7:38 am.

Then, smoke flows toward the camera and people on the platform are apparently knocked over by another blast. About five seconds later, a ball of flame erupts from a stopped train, filling the screen. The tape includes no sound, just images.

The footage appeared to have been taken from on an escalator, looking down onto the platform.

Four minutes later, bodies are seen strewn on the platform amid puddles of blood. Police and medics attend to them. The March 11 attacks have been blamed on Muslim militants liked to al-Qaida.

Telecinco TV also aired footage from a video - the existence of which had already been acknowledged by the government - of three hooded militants wearing belts loaded with dynamite cartridges and threatening more attacks against Spain unless it withdrew its troops from Afghanistan.

The three are now believed to have been part of the bombing cell and among seven suspects who blew themselves up in an apartment outside Madrid on April 3, as police prepared to storm it.

Telecinco said the video was taped in the apartment just minutes before that suicide blast.

Meanwhile, the seven North Africans arrested by Spanish police were plotting a major bombing attack against the National Court, a hub of Spain’s investigations of Islamic terrorism, newspapers reported yesterday.