Grief-stricken Spaniards prepare for general election

Traumatised by terrorism, Spaniards today prepared for general elections as a nation in grief, with the ruling party favoured to win and insisting that Basque separatists remain the prime suspect in the rail bombings that killed 199 people.

As a cold drizzle fell on Madrid, what would normally be a day of leisure and reflection before Sunday’s voting became instead another 24 hours of anguish and mourning. Families have started burying and cremating their dead, state radio said.