MADRID (AFP) - Spanish police thwarted a plot to set off two bombs in a Madrid train station as thousands of passengers were traveling to spend Christmas Eve with their families, Interior Minister Angelo Acebes said.
Police arrested two men, said to be members of the Basque ETA militant group, who were allegedly behind the plot and seized two bombs containing about 100 pounds of dynamite packed into a suitcase and a backpack, Acebes said.
One of the bombs was placed aboard the train from the city of Irun on the border with France to Madrid. Police apparently unraveled the plot after they arrested one of the suspects before he could place the second bomb on the train.
Acebes said police stopped the train at Burgos and found a 40-pound dynamite bomb, after evacuating all the passengers and closing the station.
The bomb was timed to explode at 15:55 p.m., about 45 minutes after the train was to have arrived at the busy Chamartin station in Madrid.
Acebes said the apparent aim of the bombers was to place both devices at different points on the train to maximize damage and panic.
“The macabre intention of the terrorist organization was to explode a device on Christmas Eve, in a station crowded like Chamartin,” Acebes said.
The suspects, arrested in the Basque towns of San Sebastian and Hernani, were identified as Gorka Loran Lafourcade and Garikoitz Arruarte.
Neither had police records, illustrating a new tactic of ETA to bring in fresh recruits following the arrest or flight of many of its older operatives, according to Acebes.
Acebes said Arruarte was arrested while still carrying the suitcase containing 60 pounds of dynamite, a length of detonator cord, a timer, a pistol, a wig and several others means of disguise.
“This is the face of the ETA,” Acebes said, “on Christmas eve at four o’clock in the afternoon, and with 50 kilos of explosives in a station full of people traveling to see their families.”
On Sunday, the daily El Pais quoted an international police report as saying ETA may be gearing up to make dramatic attacks in Madrid following the arrest of several of its top leaders.
ETA, which stands for Basque Land and Liberty, is possibly planning “large scale operations that would have an important effect on public opinion and the international media,” according to the Europol report as cited in the newspaper.
“Madrid could be a possible target of an action using explosives and car bombs in strategic places in the capital,” such as the metro, highways and shopping malls, it added.
Europol said ETA may seek to compensate by shock value for the weakened state of its leadership following the arrest in France earlier this month of three of its alleged top commanders, including the man accused of being its military chief, Gorka Palacios.
ETA’s bloody fight for independece from Spain -- a view not shared by most of the Basque population -- has caused the death of about 800 Spanish military and civilians, according to the interior ministry. Almost 200 ETA activists also have been killed, according to radical Basque sources.