Spanish police defuse 'Eta' bomb

Spanish police defused a bomb planted outside a courthouse hours after a judge and parliament moved to shut down a party linked to armed Basque separatists, authorities said today.

A caller who said he was from the Eta terrorist group told a Basque newspaper that there was a bomb at the court in the town of Tolosa.

The caller said it would explode just before midnight. Police cordoned off the area but the device failed to go off. It was later disabled by bomb disposal experts.

They found several pounds of dynamite and other explosives packed in a cooking pot inside a sports bag, police in San Sebastian said.

Tolosa is about 15 miles south of San Sebastian.

The bombing attempt came hours after the Spanish Congress of Deputies in Madrid voted overwhelmingly in favour of urging the government to seek a ban on Batasuna, the party considered to be Eta’s political wing and accused of fomenting terrorism.

Earlier, Judge Baltasar Garzon issued an order closing Batasuna down for three years.