Associated Press

Smoke rises from a carpark at Madrid International Airport, Madrid, Spain, yesterday, after a car bomb exploded inside it minutes after authorities received a warning on behalf of the Basque separatist group ETA. There were no injuries reported as police had time to cordon off the area after the warning call.

Tuesday August 28, 2001 |

MADRID, Spain - A powerful car bomb exploded in a parking lot at Madrid's international airport just minutes after a warning call from the armed Basque separatist group ETA. The bombing was part of a stepped-up campaign by ETA to target Spain's lucrative tourism industry in its fight for Basque independence.

The 110-pound bomb exploded in a covered parking garage connected to one of the airport's three terminals. The blast went off just before 8 a.m., a busy hour when the garage normally would be packed with travelers and their cars.

ETA has been blamed for a series of bomb blasts since March, when it advised tourists in a statement that it planned to target the tourism industry. An anonymous caller who said he was a member of ETA gave authorities time to clear people out of the garage.

"ETA is an enemy of the people. It wants to cause harm and disrupt the tourism industry," said Madrid regional leader Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon.

Spain is one of the world's three top tourist destinations, along with the United States and France.

Police chief Juan Cotino accused ETA of setting a booby-trap for his officers by timing the bomb to go off three minutes before the caller said it would. The technique has been used in the past to injure or kill the first policemen on the scene.

A local police officer who suffered damage to his hearing was the only person injured by the blast. ETA - a Basque-language acronym for Basque Homeland and Freedom - has taken responsibility for killing more than 800 people - including 12 so far this year - since it began fighting in 1968 to separate the Basque region from northern Spain and southwestern France.

The group has targeted the tourism industry in other years, but mostly with minor explosive devices. Faced with a center-right government with no inclination to discuss Basque independence, the group has made this past year its busiest in more than a decade in terms of the number of bombings and shootings.

The latest blast damaged some 100 vehicles and blew a 35-square-yard hole in the garage's third floor.

Police cars and fire trucks rushed to the scene, jamming traffic and forcing hundreds of travelers to walk to the terminals with their baggage. The parking lot is connected directly to Terminal 2 by elevators and long enclosed hallways. Normal access to the airport was restored within three hours and airport officials said no flights were canceled or delayed because of the blast.

The bomb followed the arrest last week of more than a dozen suspected ETA members in raids that officials believe thwarted other possible attacks on tourist targets.

It also resembled more than a half-dozen explosions and bomb threats against tourist targets in recent weeks, including a car-bomb that was defused in a parking lot at the busy Malaga airport in southern Spain last month.

A week ago, more than 800 people were evacuated from two hotels and an apartment building at the coastal resort of Salou prior to another car bomb forewarned by an ETA caller. Days earlier services on Spain's high-speed rail were interrupted by two small explosive devices.

Tourism operators, travelers and ministry officials maintain ETA's campaign has had no immediate effect on the industry.

"It's scary especially at an airport where so many people are gathering around," said Laurie Egbert, 40, from Salt Lake City, who was preparing to fly home from Madrid when yesterday's bomb exploded.