One injured in Spain bombing

A bomb exploded outside the offices of a right-wing political party in northern Spain today, slightly injuring one person and shattering windows, the Interior Ministry said.

A man claiming to speak for the Basque separatist group Eta claimed responsibility in a warning call shortly before the explosion.

The device detonated at 8am (7am Irish Time) in the seaside town of Santona, outside the offices of the Falange party, the remnants of long-time Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco’s political apparatus.

Less than an hour earlier, emergency services had received the warning call from a man speaking in Basque, ministry official Agustin Ibanez said.

It was impossible to independently verify the man’s link to Eta, but the style of the bombing was in keeping with a series of recent attacks by the armed separatist group.

The blast is the seventh carried out by Eta in just over two weeks.

Eta has been blamed for more than 800 deaths since the late 1960s in its struggle to create an independent Basque homeland, although its last fatal attack occurred in May 2003, when a car bombing killed two policemen.

It has routinely issued warnings before bombs go off, apparently in an effort to avoid creating casualties.

Police found a bag with a sign reading “Danger bomb” in the doorway outside the Falange offices and cordoned off the area before the device exploded.

The offices, situated within the old quarter of the historic fishing town, suffered considerable damage, with window panes shattered and glass strewn over a large area, Ibanez said.

One person received a slight cut to an eyebrow from flying glass, Ibanez said.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero offered to negotiate with Eta in May 2005 if it renounced violence, but the militant group has kept up a campaign of low-level violence, setting off dozens of explosions.