By AFP,
Madrid : An explosion hit a railway station early Saturday in the town of Berriz in northern Spain, claiming no casualties but causing major material damage, the Basque regional interior ministry said.
Two hours later, Molotov cocktails were thrown at the station in the neighbouring commune of Amorebieta, but again no one was hurt, a ministry spokesman told AFP.
“There was an explosion at 12:30 am (2230 GMT Friday) in the Berriz Euskotren (regional train) station. There is very serious material damage and no one was injured,” the spokesman said.
Police were on the scene “to determine whether it was an act of urban violence or a terrorist attack,” he said, adding that the blast had not been preceded by a telephone warning as is common practice by the armed Basque separatist group ETA.
The Euskotren station at Amorebieta was the next target at 2:30 am, with two Molotov cocktails lobbed at the front of the building damaging the ticket offices and machines.
Berriz and Amorebieta are situated east of Bilbao, near the highway linking the Basque cities of Bilbao and San Sebastian.
Acts of urban violence are common in the Basque country, often taking the form of Molotov cocktails thrown at official buildings, stations or automatic teller machines.
They are attributed to young radical supporters of Basque independence considered by police as “support groups” for ETA and a major source of its recruits.
ETA, listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States, is considered responsible for 824 deaths in its 40-year-long violent campaign for an independent Basque Country, which straddles northern Spain and southwest France.
The group resumed its campaign of attacks after breaking its last ceasefire in June 2007, and has been responsible for five deaths, including three Spanish security officers, one soldier and a former Basque Socialist elected official.
The last attack attributed to ETA was on October 4 when a bomb exploded overnight in front of a courtroom in Tolosa. On that occasion a telephone warning was given.
Saturday’s blast came hours after Spain’s top anti-terrorism judge Baltasar Garzon indicted 24 people on charges that they belonged to a ring that extorted money for ETA.
The 24 allegedly sent letters demanding payment of ETA’s so-called “revolutionary tax” to businesses in the Basque region and neighbouring Navarra or were involved in the collection of the money from their victims.