Spain's main anti-terrorist officials held an urgent meeting yesterday to analyse the situation after the latest in a series of bloody Basque separatist attacks, as hundreds silently protested against the onslaught, which left five people dead in 24 hours.
The Interior Minister, Mr Jaime Mayor Oreja, met top officials from the state security, police and civil guard in Madrid, ahead of a later meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar.
The government has so far stood firm against the three explosions, which appear to mark another deadly chapter in ETA's heightened campaign since it ended a 14-month ceasefire in December.
In Pamplona yesterday, Lieut Francisco Casanova (47) became the ninth ETA victim yesterday since the end of the ceasefire after he was shot in the head by a lone gunman as he drove his car into his garage. The Defence Minister, Mr Federico Trillo, immediately flew to Pamplona. Lieut Casanova, who worked in an administrative position in the army head quarters in Pamplona, was not in uniform when he was killed. It was his first day back at work after his family holiday and his 10-year-old son saw his father's shooting and alerted his mother.
There were scenes of great emotion in Zumaia, near San Sebastian, yesterday as hundreds of people filed past the coffin of Mr Jose Maria Korta, the industrialist killed by ETA on Tuesday. Mr Juan Jose Ibarretxe, lehendakari or president of the Basque government, a friend of Mr Korta, was unusually outspoken in his condemnation of ETA, describing it as "vermin".
There were ugly scenes in San Sebastian as pro-ETA demonstrators tried to break up a silent protest, one of many which were taking place outside town halls and public buildings across the country as a tribute to the dead.
They were pushed and shoved and eventually the ETA faction was forced to hold its own protest around the corner.
The same pro-ETA demonstrators rampaged through streets in Vitoria, Bilbao and other towns breaking windows and burning buses in San Sebastian on Tuesday night.
The Spanish government has always refused to consider any form of talks with ETA until the terrorists definitively renounce violence, nor will it meet the Basque Nationalist Party until it ends its pact with ETA's political wing.
However, there are growing calls for some new initiative as the violence borders on the intolerable. Mr Nicolas Redondo Terreros, the Basque Socialist leader, called on the Basque Nationalist Party and the ruling Popular Party to get together.
"What more must happen, how many more must die, before they can sit around a table to talk about peace?" he asked.