05/14/2008
A car bomb exploded at a police barracks in the town of Legutiano, in Basque Country early on Wednesday, killing one person and wounding four (two men and two women), police said.
The killed Spanish police officer was Juan Manuel Piñuel Villalón, born on 20th of January in 1967 in Melilla. He was married and had a child.
A police rescue team using dogs was searching for the people trapped in the wrecked Spanish Civil Guard barracks in the town of Legutiano, where the bomb exploded just before 3 a.m. (0100 GMT), near some houses, with no previous warning to evacuate the place, a spokeswoman for the Basque Country police said.
An official with the Basque regional interior ministry said the Basque armed group ETA usually phones in warnings but this time it did not, and that the bomb was large.
The four wounded people after the explosion are two men and two women, and have been taken to hospitals in Vitoria- Gasteiz, two of them to Txagorritxu and other two to Santiago but their lives are not believed to be in danger.
The car bomb, a van packed with more than 100 kilo explosives was placed outside a Civil Guard station, situated in N-240 road, at the entrance of the town.
There were other 40 people inside the building at the moment of the explosion, around 14 or 15 families with small children, who have taken to the barracks in Araca, in Vitoria-Gasteiz after the strong deflagration.
Red Cross has sent four psychologists who are seeing the people at the barracks, especially the families of the victims. Firemen are also shoring up the building, which have been seriously damaged.
Serious material damage
As the barracks were in the outskirts of the town hall there have not been major damage in the surrounding area.
However, the damage was serious inside the police station itself, since the explosion has cut the building practically in two and has demolished some parts of the roof.
Investigation
Some hours after the attack, the car used by the alleged perpetrators of the attack has been found in Urkiola, in Abadiño (Biscay).
According to first investigations, the method used by perpetrators has been similar to the one used in the attack which took place last September 2nd against another police station: they reached the place, got out of the vehicle and left the van with the explosives. After activating them, they left in another vehicle, a Peugeot 306, registered in Bilbao.
Institutional appearances
Basque Premier Juan Jose Ibarretxe has appeared at a press conference at 10:00 to express his condemnation of Basque Government about the attack.
On the other hand, Spanish Socialist Party PSOE has called all groups of the Chamber of Deputies for a meeting at midday.
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