Spain on terror alert ahead of holiday weekend

SPAIN was building up to a tense long Easter weekend yesterday, aware that Islamic militants who blew themselves up when cornered by police on Saturday had planned more attacks.

Police and troops were deployed to guard dams, power plants, rail lines and other possible targets in a country still shaken by the Madrid train bomb attacks that killed 191 and injured more than 1,800 people.

Terrorists who blew themselves up last weekend as police moved to arrest them had been plotting an attack on a shopping centre outside Madrid, according to reports yesterday.