Spain on alert as tributes paid to slain officers

THE leaders of Spain’s main political parties paid tribute to two slain police officers as security forces guarded against a fresh attack on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the armed Basque group ETA.

Authorities blame ETA for an explosion that killed the officers near a police barracks outside a base in the resort town of Palmanova on the island of Majorca and a car bomb that wounded more than 60 people in the northern city of Burgos on Wednesday.

An Interior Ministry official in Mallorca told reporters police “were still working on the hypothesis that the terrorists had not abandoned the island and were holed up in an apartment waiting for the situation to cool down a bit so that they can get out”.

The ministry issued photographs of six suspected ETA members and called on the public to help track them down. The ministry did not say whether it suspected any of the six played a role in the attacks.

Spanish National Radio said police were looking for two Basque youths seen in Palma de Mallorca this week as police stepped up security prior to the annual visit of the royal family to their summer residence at Marivent palace, about 10 kilometres from where Thursday’s bomb went off. King Juan Carlos is due to arrive on the island this week. The radio said the Basque youths had rented an apartment in Palma, but had not been seen since the attacks.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero flew to Majorca early yesterday with Popular Party leader Mariano Rajoy and placed medals of honour on the coffins of the officers, both members of the paramilitary civil guard in charge of policing rural areas and guarding official buildings.

Bells tolled at noon as people gathered in silence for five minutes outside town halls across Spain in pay their respects. Crown Prince Felipe, Princess Letizia and other authorities attended a funeral Mass at the Cathedral in Palma de Mallorca and later expressed their condolences to the relatives of the dead officers. In Madrid, armed police patrolled the streets.

Several people were also lightly wounded in Thursday’s bombing in the Palmanova beach resort area, southwest of the island’s capital, Palma. The car bomb occurred at the height of the summer holiday season for the Mediterranean island resort, which is one of Europe’s main tourist destinations.