Eight people were lightly injured in a car bomb explosion in the northern Spanish town of Calahorra on Friday, the Spanish state broadcaster RNE reported, according to dpa. The report said the bomb exploded next to a police barracks and nearby residential homes, some 250 kilometres north-east of the capital Madrid. Beforehand, however, a caller identifying himself as a member of the underground Basque separatist organization ETA provided a warning. Panic struck the area after the explosions, with police sealing off the area around the site, amid fears that a second bomb may have been planted. According to the regional government of the La Rioja, Calahorra escaped a "massacre" only by the quick action by the police to evacuate the area. A traditional Good Friday procession had taken place shortly before the attack, and many people had been in the area of the blast. ETA attacked the same police barracks 25 years ago. No one was killed in that attack. Two weeks ago, just two days before parliamentary elections, ETA is thought to have murdered a local Socialist politician. ETA is fighting for an independent Basque state. Over 800 people have been killed by ETA attacks since 1968.
