Petrol bomb attack after toy car blast

Petrol bombs were thrown at the home of a Basque police officer today, engulfing a balcony in flames but causing no injuries.

Police said no one was home at the time of the early morning attack in the town of Abadino, about 40 miles from San Sebastian where a toy car exploded yesterday killing a grandmother and critically injuring a toddler.

Police believe the attack on the house was carried out by a youth gang sympathetic to the outlawed Basque separatist group Eta.

Police in San Sebastian today remained baffled by the explosion of a booby-trapped toy car that blew up while the 16-month-old boy was playing with it, killing his 62-year-old grandmother.

They said they were not ruling out that the explosion was a politically motivated attack, although the evidence so far did not point to Eta, which routinely carries out car bombings in the region in its bloody campaign for Basque statehood.

The boy was in a critical condition after marathon surgery in the Spanish Atlantic beach resort. He was reported to have been blinded in the attack and has severe burns and head injuries.

The toy, a small electric car, had been embedded with an explosive canister wired to the switch so as to explode when the toy was turned on.

The Spanish Interior Ministry said Maria Francisca Araunzetamurgil was killed by a flying metal splinter from the canister that contained the charge.

The toddler’s aunt told police she brought the toy from a bar-restaurant she owns in the old quarter of the San Sebastian, a haven for youth gangs sympathetic to Eta.

She said the toy had been abandoned by other people in the restaurant.