Spain: A car bomb injured at least 52 people in the Spanish capital yesterday in an apparent rebuff by Basque separatist guerrillas Eta to government peace overtures.
The bomb, in a stolen van, blew up in an industrial zone in northeastern Madrid 45 minutes after a Basque newspaper received a warning in the name of Eta, officials said.
The warning gave police time to seal off the area, but dozens were hurt by flying glass.
The bomb, estimated to contain up to 20kg of explosive, turned the van into a mangled lump of metal, wrecked about 10 parked cars and smashed windows in nearby buildings, witnesses and news reports said.
Emergency services treated 52 people at the scene, five of whom had to be taken to hospital, a spokeswoman said.
"The terrorist organisation Eta continues to be alive, active and operational and we are fighting it with all our determination," interior minister José Antonio Alonso said. He urged Spaniards to "lower the noise level" after an unprecedented parliamentary vote last week raised speculation over a possible Eta truce to a new pitch.
The blast appeared to be Eta's defiant response to the vote that granted the government permission to open peace talks with the group if it laid down its arms.
The bomb came two days after French police detained three suspected Eta members and hours before two leaders of Batasuna, banned as the political wing of Eta, were due to appear in a Madrid court to answer charges of belonging to Eta. Leaders of the opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) attacked prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's policy towards Eta, saying it was a mistake to make concessions to the group.
"We must call on everyone to remove any blinkers which might make them think that Eta is something different to what it is. Eta is a terrorist group," said Madrid mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, a leading member of the PP. Pio Garcia Escudero, PP spokesman in Spain's senate, was quoted by Europa Press news agency as saying the attack did not seem to show "a desire for negotiation by the terrorist group, but rather an attempt at pressure".
Mr Zapatero condemned the bombing as an "act of terror". "The terrorist group Eta's only fate is to give up its arms and disband," he told the senate.
Eta has killed nearly 850 people since 1968 in a bombing and shooting campaign for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France.