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70 people killed in Madrid rail rush hour explosions
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-11 16:58
Four powerful explosions rocked Madrid train stations during Thursday morning rush hour, ripping apart train cars and killing at least 70 people just days before national elections.
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| The blasts destroyed two train cars arriving at Madrid's Atocha station. [AFP] |
There was no claim of responsibility, but suspicions fell on the Basque separatist group ETA. If ETA carried out the blasts, it would be the group's deadliest attack in decades of armed struggle. Previously, their deadliest strike was in 1987 when 21 people were killed in a supermarket blast in Barcelona.
Shards of twisted metal were scattered by rails at the bustling Atocha station at the spot where an explosion severed a train in two.
Wounded victims spattered with blood were lifted into ambulances or treated on the sidewalk. A man leaning against a post had half his face covered in blood with one eye swollen shut as he was treated by emergency workers.
The Interior Ministry said that at least 70 killed were killed. Dozens more were wounded.
Two bombs went off in a commuter train as it arrived at bustling Atocha station in the Spanish capital, according to news reports. Explosions rocked two other stops on a commuter line leading to Atocha, the news agency Efe reported.
Witnesses saw train cars destroyed. Hospitals appealed for people to come in and donate blood after Thurday's blasts.
Police had been on alert for ETA violence ahead of general elections Sunday, which the ruling conservatives, which has taken a hard line against ETA, are expected to fare well.
On February 29, police intercepted a Madrid-bound van packed with more than 1,100 pounds of explosives, and blamed on ETA. On Christmas eve, police thwarted an attempted bombing at Chamartin, another Madrid rail station, and arrested two suspected ETA members.
Cesar Gomez, a Madrid rescue services official, said there was a "multitude" of injured at Atocha.
People in tears and bloodied could be seen walking away from the station in droves.
"I saw many things explode in the air, I don't know, it was horrible," said Juan Fernandez, 50, a civil servant who was on the platform to take the train to go to work.
"People started to scream and run, some bumping into each other and as we ran there was another explosion. I saw people with blood pouring from them, people on the ground."
A woman who lives near the El Pozo station on the line leading to Atocha said "the scene I am seeing is hellish. People running toward Atocha however they can."
The woman said she saw a boy or young man on the ground who appeared to have died.
"I can see people inside the remains of the train," the unidentified woman told Spanish National Radio.
An Associated Press reporter saw a woman with a bloodied face outside Atocha station.
Atocha is a huge downtown complex with a subway station and both commuter and long-distance trains.
About an hour after the blasts, people who had gathered blocks from the Atocha station stampeded away, apparently fearing another bomb.
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