Judge warns of Spain terror cells

Juan del Olmo says the attacks were prepared in a few months

The judge investigating the Madrid train bombings says there are still terror cells operating in Spain which could strike again.

Judge Juan del Olmo said in a letter to the parliamentary commission into the 11 March attacks that the core cell behind bombings had been dismantled.

But he warned that some people who had acted as a support network for the attackers were still at large.

He feared they could become operational again in further plots.

The bomb blasts on four commuter trains caused the deaths of 191 people.

Judge del Olmo has led the investigation into the bombings, questioning dozens of people and bringing provisional charges against 20 people, most of whom are in prison.

Cell destroyed

A few weeks after the bombings, seven key suspects died in an explosion at a flat in a Madrid suburb as police closed in on them.

The cell is believed to have been made up of made up of the suspected ringleader, Serhane ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, and six others, some of whom are thought to have placed the bombs on the trains.

But in his evidence to the commission, the judge said others could take their place, support cells substituting the dismantled operational cell.

The judge also told the commission that the preparation for the attacks was done in a few months.

The commission is charged with establishing whether more could have been done to prevent the bombings and what impact they had on the 14 March election which resulted in victory for the opposition Socialist party (PSOE).