The Basque separatist group ETA claimed its eighth victim of the year yesterday with the death of a leading businessman, Mr Jose Maria Korta.
Mr Korta (52) was killed in a car-bomb blast outside his high-precision metal company in the Zumaia Industrial Estate, near San Sebastian.
Mr Korta, president of Adegi, the Guipuzcoan Employers' Organisation, had just parked his Audi A4 car outside his office building shortly after noon yesterday when a Fiat Tipo car, parked alongside his, was detonated by remote control. Although paramedics fought to save his life, he died less than half an hour later.
Madrid was the scene of a second ETA bomb less than six hours later when a car bomb exploded in the north of the city.
Ten people, including two small children, were injured, three of them seriously. A security guard on duty in a nearby office building received the most serious injuries and was rushed to hospital with wounds to the face and chest.
The blast occurred shortly after 6.30 p.m. in the Calle de Pastrana, and although police had received a warning less than 10 minutes earlier there was no time to clear the area.
The killing of Mr Korta was condemned by all political parties, with the exception of ETA's political front, Euskal Herritarrok, and protest demonstrations have been convened in towns across the region.
Mr Juan Jose Ibarretxe, President of the Basque government, returned hurriedly from a visit to Belgium. King Juan Carlos sent a telegram of condolence to Mr Korta's family and the Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar, issued a statement from his summer home in Castellon.
Mr Ricardo Pena, Mayor of Zumaia and a friend of the deceased, rushed to the scene of the crime which he described as "indecent and immoral". He said: "He was a true Basque and a model employer who ran a modern company which he struggled to make a success."
Only 12 hours before yesterday's killing four ETA terrorists died on Monday night when their car, carrying arms and explosives, blew up as they were driving through Bolueta, a suburb of Bilbao.
The car, which had been stolen last week, contained at least 30 kilos of explosives, and the Basque police force are investigating whether the blast was a primed car-bomb being driven to its target or whether the ETA members were transporting material to one of their bomb-making factories.
The explosion occurred close to the offices of three newspapers and a short way from the feeder road leading to the San Sebastian and Vitoria motorways. Three pistols found in the wreckage came from a number of weapons stolen from the Basque police in 1982.
One of the victims was identified as Patxi Rementeria (39), who is alleged to have been responsible for one of the most deadly ETA groups, the Vizcaya Commando. He is accused of at least four killings, including that of Miguel Angel Blanco, the young Popular Party councillor murdered in 1997, and of participating in at least 18 other attacks.
He narrowly escaped capture in January after another bomb, containing 20 kilos of dynamite, was abandoned when the target, a Civil Guard van, changed its route at the last moment.
The remains of the other three victims are being examined to determine their identity. One of them is believed to be Antxon Sasiain who has been on the run since 1997.
Their deaths bring to 29 the number of ETA members killed by their own bombs over the past 30 years.
Several hundred pro-ETA demonstrators assembled in San Sebastian and outside the mortuary in Bilbao where the bodies were taken for autopsies, and where Basque flags with black ribbons were hanging.
Mr Arnaldo Otegi, leader of Euskal Herritarrok, was one of those present in Bilbao. He described the four men as his "comrades and patriots. Four brave independence fighters who died fighting for their homeland. We will continue the struggle and conquer our land," he warned.