Thirteen people were injured when car bombs exploded in Madrid today as thousands of football fans headed to a European Champions League semi-final between Real Madrid and Barcelona, in attacks said to be the work of armed Basque separatist group ETA.
Spanish emergency services said thirteen people were injured in the first blast, which occurred shortly before 4 p.m. near the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in northern Madrid, where the soccer match was due to start four hours later.
Basque nationalist newspaper Gara received an anonymous telephone call on behalf of ETA shortly before the blast and emergency services were able to clear the stadium's offices and commercial stands, police said.
The second car bomb exploded about half an hour later near the main Atocha railway station in the south of the city. Media reports said the vehicle could have been a getaway car.
The May Day explosions The explosions coincided with some 75 May Day trades union marches to protest at a government reform of the unemployment benefit system.
The blasts came a day after police arrested 11 people believed to be involved in financing ETA and seized weapons in France.
AFP