Spanish Police Foil Train Bomb Attack in Madrid

reuters ^ | 12/24/03

[knak]

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have foiled an attempt by suspected Basque separatists to blow up a train in a main Madrid station on Christmas Eve Wednesday, one of the busiest travel days of the year, the interior minister said.

Minister Angel Acebes said police detained one person after he loaded a suitcase packed with more than 44 pounds of explosives on a train in the northern city of San Sebastian bound for Madrid. The explosives were set to go off at 3:55 p.m., after the train arrived in Spanish capital, he said. Acebes said a second person was detained before putting another explosives-packed suitcase on the same train.

"In total, that train would have had 50 kilos of (explosives) ..., aimed at creating an explosion in Chamartin station, I insist, on Christmas Eve at four in the afternoon," Acebes told a news conference.

ETA, which has killed nearly 850 people in its campaign for an independent Basque state since 1968, has attempted to stage Christmas bomb attacks in the capital before. In 1999 civil guards stopped two vans, each carrying about a ton of explosive, which police said were destined for Madrid.

ETA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

[livius]

They stopped the train in Burgos, about half way there, and deactivated the bomb and arrested the person transporting it. A bomb in Charmartin Station would have been comparable to bombing Penn Station.

[Tijeras_Slim]

44 pounds of explosive. I'm really glad they caught this one.

[livius]

ETA, the IRA and various Islamic radical groups were known to have trained together and use many of the same techniques, as far as car-bombs and other types of attacks on civilians go. ETA gets much of its money and materials from Latin America, by the way.

A report in the Spanish press said that one 100+ pound bomb had been intercepted on the train at Burgos, about half-way to Madrid. Another ETA member was nabbed in the city of Irun, lugging an equally huge one along the street in a suitcase. Busy little beavers, aren't they?

[RightWhale]

more than 44 pounds of explosives

So precise. They know how much explosive blew up to within a pound. Amazing what converting the 20 kilo estimate to pounds can do for precision.

[livius]

Yes, it was 2 suitcases of 25 kilos each, according to the latest reports (earlier ones had each suitcase weighing 50 kilos). That's about 55 pounds apiece. Evidently the suitcases were supposed to be on the same train, so they would go off together when it got to Charmartin, but the second "bomb courier" was arrested before he made it to the train.