Madrid airport blast: body of Ecuadorian found
www.chinaview.cn 2007-01-04 10:22:26

The body of one of the two people missing in a car bombing at the Madrid airport on Dec. 30 was found on Wednesday, according to officials with the Spanish Interior Ministry.

Rescue workers search for the body of one of the two men buried under rubble left by a powerful ETA bomb last Saturday at Madrid Airport Jan. 4, 2007. The body of one of the two people missing in a car bombing at the Madrid airport on Dec. 30 was found on Wednesday, according to officials with the Spanish Interior Ministry.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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     MADRID, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- The body of one of the two people missing in a car bombing at the Madrid airport on Dec. 30 was found on Wednesday, according to officials with the Spanish Interior Ministry.

    The body of Ecuadorian Carlos Alonso Palate, 34, was found in his car in the destroyed parking lot of the airport. Basque Homeland and Freedom (ETA) was blamed for the fatal attack, the first since May 2003 when the separatist organization killed two policemen in a car bombing.

    The other Ecuadorian, Diego Armando Estacio, 19, remains missing after the car bombing, in which 19 others were also injured.

    Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero visited families of the victims on Wednesday, saying the people who committed this awful crime would be brought to justice.

    Rescue work has still been under way, but the officials said chances for Estacio's survival were very slim.

    ETA has not claimed responsibility for the explosion, but one hour before the blast, a caller saying he represented the group had warned fire brigade and rescue services of the attack.

    ETA, created in 1959, has called for the establishment of an independent Basque state in the Basque region straddling the Spanish-French border.

    Over the past four decades, assassinations, kidnappings and explosions carried out by the group have claimed the lives of nearly 1,000 people. The European Union and the United States havelisted ETA as a terrorist organization.

    ETA declared a permanent truce on March 22 last year. Three months later, the Spanish government decided to start a dialogue with the group.

Editor: Liu Dan
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