Police in San Sebastian are investigating the mysterious explosion which killed a 62-year-old woman and critically injured her 16-month old grandson while they were driving through the centre of the city.
First reports suggested that a toy car which had been left in a bar owned by the victims' family had been booby trapped by Basque terrorists to explode when its remote control device was manipulated.
Although the police say they are not ruling out any hypothesis, they say they have been unable to find any trace of explosives in the car where the blast occured. They are now working on the possibility that the tragedy could have been an accident. They are investigating the theory that a fault in the radio control device in the toy car could have triggered an explosion in the petrol tank.
The baby suffered critical injuries to the head and face. Surgeons spent hours trying to save his life although they say that if he recovers he will almost certainly be blind.
The tragedy in San Sebastian occurred as a crisis meeting began in Madrid between Interior Ministry officials with those of the Basque government and the autonomous police forces of the Basque and Catalan communities.
The talks, originally planned for later this week, were brought forward at the weekend after the car bomb explosion in the Mediterranean resort of Salou, in which considerable damage was caused to a tourist hotel and some 13 people were slightly injured.
The hotel staff and police had less than 30 minutes to wake the 760 guests of the Cala Font Hotel on Saturday morning before the 50 kg car bomb exploded at 8 a.m. Nearly all the guests and the 40 members of staff had left the building before the blast, although the family of Mr Malcolm Spink from Belfast apparently slept through the warnings. Mr Spink's 13-year-old daughter, who was sleeping near the window, received minor cuts to her legs from broken glass. Twelve others received first aid treatment for minor injuries and panic attacks, although since none of them required hospital treatment no list of names was issued.
The explosive used in the blast was part of the 1 1/2 tons of dynamite stolen by ETA from a mining store near Grenoble in France in January.
Police say the Renault 25 car had been stolen from near Bilbao early this month and the car, probably equipped with a timing device, driven to Salou some days before the explosion. It was the fourth bomb against Spain's vital tourist industry so far this year.
Two bombs exploded in March on the Costa Brava and on the Costa Blanca, killing a police officer, and another was defused in Malaga airport last month. An ETA terrorist also died when the bomb she was apparently manipulating blew up in an apartment in Torrevieja, near Alicante.
The resort of Salou, near Tarragona, has quickly returned to normal with an estimated 100,000 Spanish and foreign tourists crowding the beaches and seafront promenade yesterday morning. Tourist officials say that fewer than 200 visitors asked to be flown home before the end of their holidays.
The repairs, mainly to the windows of the hotel, are almost complete and the management say they hope to be open again by tomorrow.
Reuters adds: Spanish media reported that about 170 British tourists staying in Salou had cut short their vacations after the bomb exploded on Saturday.
Those heading for home were in a tiny minority. At the height of the season, 50,000 arrive every week in Salou.
Spain was the world's third most popular tourist destination after France and the United States last year, with more than 48 million foreign visitors.