World

Three Killed In Spain Car Bombing

October 30, 2000 / 7:27 AM EST / AP

A Supreme Court judge, his bodyguard and driver were killed Monday when a suspected Basque separatist car bomb rocked a busy residential area during the morning rush hour, officials said. About 30 people were injured.

The judge, 69-year-old Jose Francisco Querol, worked a military section of the court, had the rank of general and was due to retire next month, said the General Council of the Judiciary, a judicial oversight body.

The other two victims were tentatively identified as driver Armando Medina Sanchez and Jesus Escudero Garcia, a member of the national police force.

The blast occurred at 9:15 a.m. as people were going to work and children to schools in the Arturo Soria area of northeastern Madrid.

At least 30 others were being treated for injuries, municipal police spokesman Jose Javier Rodriguez said. He said the car bomb detonated in another vehicle as the judge's car was about to drive away.

A bus was completely burnt out in the blast. It was not known if it was carrying passengers, but the driver was among those seriously injured.

The explosion occurred some 50 yards from a school. There were no immediate reports of children being injured.

Although no group claimed responsibility, politicians and police immediately blamed the Basque separatist group ETA, which has frequently used car-bombs as part of its 32-year-old campaign for Basque independence in an area stradding northern Spain and southwest France.

There was no word from ETA. The group usually takes weeks to claim responsibility, and often does so in communiques sent to a pro-independence Basque newspaper.

ETA has been blamed for some 800 killings since 1968, including 16 since it ended a 14-month cease-fire last December. ETA's last attributed attack was Oct. 22 when a prison officer was killed by a bomb attached to his car in the Basque city of Vitoria.

The death toll of Monday's blast was the highest of any of the attacks since the cease-fire ended.

Monday's blast area was like a war zone, with smoldering cars and broken glass littering the street and people running about frantically.

"I was just waking up when I heard a tremendous explosion. It blew out my windows and I put my arms over my head," said 24-year-old Ricardo Villaverde, who lives in an apartment just above where the bomb exploded.

"The glass cut my face," he added. "I looked out the window and people were crazy and panicking in street."

Police cordoned off the area for fear another bomb may have been planted.

Organizations opposed to ETA violence called for peaceful demonstrations later Monday in Madrid and the Basque cities of Vitoria, Bilbao and San Sebastian. One group, the Movement Against Intolerance, said similar protest gatherings would be held Tuesday in other cities, including Barcelona.

Previous demonstrations following deadly ETA attacks have drawn tens of thousands of Spaniards eager to express their opposition to the Basque violnce.