Car bomb kills Spanish officer

Advertisement

Footage of the aftermath showed the car on fire

A senior police officer has been killed in a car bomb attack in the Spanish city of Bilbao, in the Basque region.

Eduardo Puelles Garcia, an inspector, died inside the vehicle in a car park in the city's Della Pina district.

The Basque regional government has blamed the bombing on the militant separatist group Eta, which formally ended a ceasefire two years ago.

Eta's violent four-decade campaign for a sovereign Basque state has cost more than 800 lives.

"There was an attack, a big explosion, that burnt up the individual inside the car and damaged other vehicles nearby," Basque regional government's Interior Minister Rodolfo Ares was quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.

If confirmed, it would be the group's first fatal attack in six months; and the first since the Spanish Socialist Party took control of the Basque regional government, following elections in March, says the BBC's Steve Kingstone in Madrid.

ETA declared that election undemocratic.

Spain's Prime Minister, Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero, who is attending the summit of European Union leaders in Brussels, blamed Eta:

"We knew it could happen again even if the terror organisation is weaker than ever because of the action of the security forces, the judges, the tribunals, the international cooperation."

"We knew it could happen again but we will never resign ourselves to accept that," Mr Zapatero added.

The Spanish government had already declared the peace process "finished" after a bomb blast by Eta killed two Ecuadorean men at a Madrid airport car park in December 2006.

---

Are you in Bilbao? Were you near the scene of the blast? Send us your comments using the form below.

Name

Your E-mail address

Town & Country

Phone number (optional):

Comments

The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.

Terms & Conditions