Explosion hits Madrid Airport's terminal 4
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Around 9:00 a.m. local time (0800 UTC) today, an explosion occurred at Barajas International Airport, in Madrid, Spain.
A car bomb exploded in the Level-D Parking Garage of the recently completed Terminal 4. A Spanish official declared that the police first received a telephone call warning them about the bomb, and then a second call with the type of vehicle. The second caller claimed the attack for the Basque nationalist group ETA. Thanks to the telephone call, the police could evacuate most of the area. One man is reported missing after the explosion, and 26 people including two police officers were reported to be injured in the blast. The terminal sustained serious damage, and the situation in the airport became chaotic on one of the busiest days of the year.
Arnaldo Otegi, spokesman of ETA's political wing Batasuna, did not condemn the attack, but said the peace talks are not interrupted by the explosion. The Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba condemned the attack, saying that it "breaks nine months without violence on the part of ETA, which breaks the permanent ceasefire." Only in June, the Spanish President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announced peace talks with ETA. But tonight, Zapatero ordered the suspension of all dialogue, because "with violence, there can be no kind of dialogue."
Media
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Policemen in the damaged garage.
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Interior of Terminal 4 on the first day it was opened.
- Watch a video of the damages here.
Related news
[edit]- "Zapatero announces peace talks with Basque separatists, ETA" — Wikinews, June 29, 2006
Sources
[edit]- "Explosion rocks parking lot at Madrid airport" — MSNBC, December 30, 2006
- Harold Heckle. "26 hurt in car bombing at Madrid airport" — The Associated Press, December 30, 2006
- "Zapatero: "He ordenado suspender todas las iniciativas para desarrollar el diálogo con ETA"" — El País, December 30, 2006 (Spanish)