Electricity transformer, banks attacked in Basque Country

Three districts of the Basque Country town of Vitoria were left without electricity after an overnight arson attack by youths on a transformer station belonging to the national Iberdrola electricity company, Spanish radio reported on Thursday.

It said the attack left 1,500 Iberdola customers without electricity in the middle of their New Year celebrations, and that more than two people were trapped in lifts.

The radio also said that two cash dispensers were set on fire and a bank's window panes were broken in early morning attacks in the Basque Country town of Bilbao.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.