Eta car bomb injures 40

MADRID - In the most serious Eta attack in the Spanish capital for three years, a powerful car bomb claimed by the Basque separatist organisation exploded on Wednesday near a business conference centre where the King and Queen of Spain were to open an international art show hours later.

The blast shattered the futuristic facade of a computer company building, damaged 18 parked cars and injured more than 40 people, none seriously.

The 30kg of explosives packed in a stolen Renault went off at 9.30am, catching Ignacio Lomas in a meeting with colleagues at the Bull company's glass-clad office.

"We'd just got together for our morning meeting on the second floor when the bomb went off and sent me flying three metres across the room," Mr Lomas, 44, said as he stood outside clutching a blanket that someone had thrown across his shoulders.

His hands and face were criss-crossed with cuts and starting to swell.

"We all got out as quick as we could; everything's shattered in there, I don't know when well be able to go back in," Mr Lomas said, shivering without his jacket in the winter breeze, his trousers rumpled and caked with dust.

Hours later, a team of firefighters were still sweeping heaps of rubble and shards of glass that had flown from the buildings windows when the bomb exploded.

High on a fire engine crane, two officers sent further cascades of glass crashing to the ground by hacking out damaged windows with pickaxes.

More than 20 windows gaped open to the sky, and the interior of the buildings lower floors was devastated.

Another employee, Joaquin Bona, was in his office having a coffee when the blast hit.

"It was like being in a violent car crash, but five times stronger," he said.

"A huge metal cabinet in my office toppled over and nearly crushed me.

Some people were thrown to the floor with blood on their face.

We rushed out to find police cars were all around." Police received an Eta tipoff that a bomb was to explode in the area in half an hour, but the location was imprecise and the blast occurred five minutes early.

Moments walk from the scene is the high and handsome conference and exhibition centre where King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia were last night to inaugurate Madrid's international contemporary art fair, Arco, an event that annually attracts art lovers and dealers world-wide.

Flags of all nations fluttered outside the building, a brave splash of colour in a featureless zone of offices and business hotels.

The flags herald Madrid's bid for the 2012 Olympics, some of whose events would be housed in the conference centre.

"Madrid 2012. Ready for You" screamed huge scarlet and gold words, in English, from the glass facade of the building where Olympic taekwondo, table tennis, badminton, judo, boxing, wrestling, fencing and beach volleyball events are scheduled.

The blast, and the hours of traffic chaos that ensued, is bound to affect Madrid's chances of hosting the games.

After last March's train bombs, and a clutch of parcel bombs in petrol stations around Madrid last December, security was a big worry for the Olympic inspection team that visited the city's installations last weekend.

Eleven months ago, the exhibition centre that last night welcomed the Spanish royals formed an improvised mortuary for victims of the Islamist train bombings that killed 192 and wounded hundreds.

As Spain braces for the anniversary next month of Europe's most serious Islamist attack, politicians' promises to guarantee the safety of Olympic contestants and visitors have received a sharp knock.

The Eta bomb coincided with a police sweep against the Basque separatist organisation in which some 14 suspects were detained in dawn raids in the Basque country, Navarra, Valencia and Andalusia.

The operation "completely dismantled" Etas recruitment structure, said Jose Antonio Alonso, the Interior Minister, using words well-worn for decades.

Meanwhile, rumours swirl that Eta wants to talk.

Much weakened in recent months, Eta wants the government to bring nearer home more than 700 Eta prisoners jailed throughout Spain, as one condition for a possible ceasefire.

But, Mr Alonso insisted yesterday, "there's no negotiation.

Well continue to act firmly against terror, and sooner or later well put an end to Eta." He promised "maximum police action".

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapateros socialist government, and the conservative opposition, rejected in parliament last week a Basque plan for negotiated independence and free association with Spain.

"I've warned the terrorists of Eta and those who support them that there is no room for them in our society, that bombs will lead only to prison, and that the future of the Basque Country within a united Spain will be built despite them," Mr Zapatero said yesterday, while visiting Poland.

- INDEPENDENT