Car bomb explodes at Spanish university

A powerful car bomb exploded at a university in the Spanish city of Pamplona today wounding at least one person.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Spanish police arrested three suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA on Tuesday in Pamplona and another in Valencia.

The bomb went off in a car park at the University of Navarra, setting other vehicles on fire and sending up a column of smoke.

“It was a very strong explosion, very powerful,” a university spokeswoman said.

Spanish National Radio said the bomb was apparently timed to go off at a busy period when many students and staff were walking across the campus and that there was major property damage from the blast.

ETA has killed more than 800 people since the late 1960s in its battle to create an independent Basque homeland straddling northern Spain and south-west France.

Navarra, a region where Pamplona is the capital, is home to many Basque-speakers, and ETA says it should be part of the independent homeland it wants to create.