Police find bomb in Basque region days after blast killed man in Madrid
Nearly 220 pounds of explosives were found in a drum near an abandoned car outside the Basque town of Amorebieta, and they were rigged to be used in an attack, a spokesman for the Basque police said.
The Basque interior department said the explosives found yesterday were ready for “immediate” use and only lacked a detonator.
Police searching the area noticed the car had been parked for several days, and upon examining it found suspicious stains inside. They expanded their search and found the drum with the explosives, the department said.
Earlier, Spain’s prime minister had said the deadly ETA car bomb on Saturday had not dashed his hopes for a negotiated peace in the Basque Country.
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero spoke as he made his first visit to the site of Saturday’s bombing, which killed at least one man and forced the Socialist leader to end a peace process on which he had staked significant political capital.
“Here, from the scene of destruction just a few days after this terrible attack, I want to say that my energy and determination to see the end of violence, to reach peace, is even greater,” Zapatero said, as rescue workers searched for a likely second victim in a wrecked airport car park building.
Zapatero’s hesitant initial reaction to the blast, in which he was unclear about whether talks were finished or not, and his five-day delay in visiting the bomb site have provided easy targets for the conservative opposition.
Opposition Popular Party (PP) leader Mariano Rajoy, who had opted for the high-risk strategy of opposing peace talks, was photographed at the bomb scene two days ago.
More talks with the guerillas, who killed over 800 people in four decades now seem unlikely before general elections in 2008.
The dramatic end to the peace talks, just a day after Zapatero made headlines with a public declaration of optimism about the Basque Country, could now make the elections a tougher prospect for the Socialists.
