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| Europe |
| Spain: Bomb found on train |
| 2003-12-24 |
| Very close call. Spanish police have foiled a Basque separatist plot to detonate two powerful bombs aboard a train at a bustling Madrid railway station. Two suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA have been arrested in the Basque region, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said. One of the two 55lb bombs had actually been placed on the train traveling from the Basque city San Sebastian to Madrid, but police stopped the train in the northern city of Burgos, evacuated it, removed the bomb and defused it. A second bomb was seized in posssession of one of the two detainees before it could be planted on the train, he told a news conference. Both bombs had been placed in suitcases or knapsacks and the one found on the train was timed to go off just before 4pm (1500 GMT) as Madrid’s Chamartin station was packed. "This is ETA’s way of making its presence felt: Christmas Eve, 4-o-clock in the afternoon, 50 kilos of explosives at a station full of people that are going to travel to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas with their families," Mr Acebes said. The suspect with the suitcase bomb still in his possession was arrested in San Sebastian. Police also seized a timer, a pistol, a wig and a train ticket to go from San Sebastian to Madrid. The one who managed to place a bomb on the train was arrested shortly thereafter in Hernani near San Sebastian. |
| Posted by:Seafarious |