Body found in rubble of Madrid car bombing

Rescuers today found the body of one of two men missing in the rubble of a car bomb blast in Madrid blamed on the Basque separatist group Eta, making this Eta’s first fatal attack in more than three years, police said.

The remains are those of Ecuadorian immigrant Carlos Alonso Palate, aged 35, a National Police official said.

Palate was believed to have been sleeping in a car in the multi-storey car park targeted in Saturday’s explosion at Madrid airport.

Another Ecuadorian, Diego Armando Estacio, 19, who was at the airport separately and also sleeping in a parked car, remains missing in the tonnes of concrete and metal rubble.

Eta’s last fatal attack was in May 2003, a car bombing that killed two policemen in the northern town of Sanguesa.

Saturday’s explosion shattered a nine-month ceasefire that Eta had described as permanent.

Until the truce Eta had kept up relatively low-scale attacks, targeting things like empty buildings and apparently taking pains not to kill anyone.

The government, which said in June it believed the truce was sincere and announced plans to negotiate with Eta, has responded to the attack by declaring the peace process over.