At least 190 people were killed and more than 1 000 injured early on Thursday in near-simultaneous explosions on trains in Madrid at the height of morning commuter traffic, Spanish firefighters said.
Thirteen bombs were planted around Madrid and 10 exploded, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said.
”Three went off at Atocha station” in central Madrid, ”four near to” the same station, as well as ”one at Santa Eugenia and two at Pozo stations” in nearby suburbs, said Acebes.
He added three further bombs had been located by Spanish authorities and detonated in controlled explosions.
Atocha railway station is a major transport hub in the south of the Spanish capital.
The attack is the deadliest in memory in any European Union country, EU officials said.
The blasts appeared likely to be a deliberate attack staged only 72 hours ahead of Spanish general elections.
Police and firemen evacuated buildings around Atocha station for fear of more explosions.
At the site, emergency services were carrying the injured on stretchers to waiting ambulances, while passers-by sat stunned on curbsides, in blood-soaked and ripped clothing.
Meanwhile, all hospitals in and around the capital issued an urgent appeal for blood donations, as hundreds of injured continued to arrive.
The explosions come only three days ahead of the election, when 34,5-million voters are expected to decide whether to keep ruling conservatives in power or hand a win to opposition Socialists.
The government immediately blamed the Basque armed separatist group ETA, which has waged a three-decade violent campaign for independence that has killed more than 850 people. Recent attacks have included a string of explosions targeting Spanish resorts in summertime.
Government spokesperson Eduardo Zaplana condemned what he called ”an attack on Spanish democracy” and dubbed ETA a ”criminal gang of killers”.
However, the leader of the banned Basque separatist party Batasuna denied the government’s claim that the ETA had carried out the bombings, and blamed ”the Arab resistance” instead.
Spanish officials said late in February that police had averted a bomb attack by ETA planned for the election campaign period.
All political parties said they had suspended their meetings for the day, and communist candidate Izquierda Unida Gaspar Llamazares also denounced what he termed ”the Nazi savagery of ETA”.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said he hoped the people behind Thursday’s bomb attacks would quickly be caught and brought to trial.
”The killing of innocent people cannot be justified, regardless of the cause,” Annan told reporters at UN headquarters in New York.
”I hope that the perpetrators will be brought to justice swiftly.”
The world body has yet to come up with a comprehensive definition of terrorism, but Annan said that in no way should cloud the issue of how to judge the devastating bomb blasts.
”Regardless of how one defines terrorism, I think it is clear to all that the killing of innocent lives is terrorism, and there is no argument about it. It is morally unacceptable,” he said.
Annan said he felt ”profound shock and indignation” at the attacks.
Meanwhile the UN Security Council was preparing to pass a resolution later in the day condemning the attacks and other recent suspected terror incidents elsewhere, diplomats said.
”We have to give a powerful signal,” said Chile’s UN ambassador, Heraldo Munoz, calling for ”unity and clear condemnation” from his colleagues on the 15-nation council.
He said diplomats were still discussing whether the UN resolution would mention any terror groups by name, which would be an unusual step for the Security Council to take.
World leaders on Thursday condemned the bomb attacks as an attack on Spanish democracy.
United States President George Bush said he had spoken with Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar to express US support after the blasts.
”I told them that we stand strong with the people of Spain,” Bush said.
”I appreciate so very much the Spanish government’s fight against terror, their resolute stand against terrorist organisations as ETA. The US stands with them,” Bush told reporters as he left the White House to go to New York.
”It is an outrageous, unjustified and unjustifiable attack on the Spanish people and Spanish democracy,” European Parliament President Pat Cox said in the legislature in Strasbourg, France.
”There is a general election due in Spain on Sunday. What happened today is a declaration of war on democracy. Let Sunday show that Spanish democracy is determined to overcome terrorism,” Cox said.
European Commission President Romano Prodi called the attacks ”ferocious and senseless”.
”This is not a political act, it is criminal act against defenseless people … a perverse act of terrorists,” Prodi said.
In Dublin, Ireland’s Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who holds the EU presidency, said in a statement the ”timing of the bombings was clearly designed to wreak the greatest level of havoc … and cannot be justified by any political cause”.
”This terrible attack underlines the threat that we all continue to face from terrorism in many countries and why we all must work together internationally to safeguard our peoples against such attacks, and defeat terrorism,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in London.
Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi denounced the attacks as ”abominable violence that wounds every principle of civil existence” but said they would reinforce Europe’s commitment to unite to combat terrorism.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer expressed his horror.
”These despicable terror acts that have claimed so many victims fill us with deep sadness and outrage,” Fischer said in Berlin.
”We hope that Spanish citizens will turn Sunday’s parliamentary elections into a signal for a strong Spanish democracy, one that resists this insane terrorism,” leaders of Germany’s Greens party, the junior government partner, said in a statement.
In Copenhagen, the Danish government ”expressed its deepest sympathy to the victims, their families and to the people of Spain”, said Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, who added his ”condemnation of such acts of terror”.
French President Jacques Chirac wrote to Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar, condemning these ”terrible attacks against Madrid’s rail network that have plunged Spain into mourning”.
”In these horrifying circumstances, I extend in my name and in the name of the French people, my most sincere condolences,” Chirac wrote.
Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said: ”On behalf of the alliance, I condemn in the strongest possible terms this mindless act of cruelty and barbarism.”
Pope John Paul II condemned the bombings, calling it an ”abominable” terrorist action.
”The Holy Father reiterates his firm and absolute disapproval of such actions that offend God, violate the fundamental right to life and undermine peaceful coexistence,” said the message sent to Spanish Church authorities.
The pope offered prayers for the victims and expressed closeness to the families involved. — Sapa-AFP, Sapa-AP