SPAIN: A rocket grenade exploded at Zaragoza airport in Spain yesterday after a warning by the armed Basque separatist group Eta. A Ryanair aircraft was forced to divert to a nearby military base. There were no injuries.
Police found two rocket-launchers in undergrowth outside the airport perimeter. One was empty, presumably after firing its charge, and the second contained a grenade which was defused by bomb experts, the interior ministry said.
Authorities evacuated the nearly empty airport before the blast. Zaragoza is 250km northeast of Madrid, about halfway to Barcelona.
A flight by Ryanair, due about an hour after the blast, landed safely but passengers were diverted to a military base on the other side of the runways, dragging their suitcases behind them.
The attack is the latest in a string linked to Eta since the Spanish government said last month it was open to negotiations with the group if it laid down its arms and renounced violence.
Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been forced to defend his offer since it won endorsement from parliament last month.
Many people and politicians on the right consider it a betrayal of Eta's victims and an unworthy concession to a group which has killed 850 people since 1968. Mr Zapatero said 178 Eta suspects have been jailed since he took office 14 months ago.