Bomb kills 2 Spanish police on Mallorca

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-07-31 09:04

PALMA DE MALLORCA, Balearic Islands: A powerful bomb on the Spanish resort island of Mallorca killed two police officers in their patrol vehicle Thursday, the second attack blamed on Basque separatist group ETA in two days.

Police found a second bomb under another police jeep later Thursday in the same area and carried out a controlled explosion. Authorities temporarily blocked all outgoing flights and ships from leaving Mallorca as part of a manhunt.

Spanish Civil Guards Carlos Saenz de Tejada Garcia (L) and Diego Salva Lezaun are seen in this combination handout photo July 30, 2009. [Agencies]

Less than 36 hours earlier, a car bomb destroyed a police barracks in the northern Spanish city of Burgos, injuring about 60 people Wednesday.

If confirmed as ETA attacks, the blasts would conflict with government assertions that the group is seriously weakened after major police crackdowns in Spain and France in recent years.

The 50th anniversary of ETA's founding is Friday and the group may be trying to demonstrate with attacks on the two consecutive days before the milestone that it was not in any danger of breaking up.

The officers killed Thursday were aged 27 and 28. They belonged to the paramilitary Civil Guard, which is chiefly in charge of policing rural areas and guarding official buildings.

Television images showed the charred and mangled remains of a vehicle that had been parked on a street in the Palmanova beach resort area, southwest of the island's capital, Palma de Mallorca.

The blast was caused by a bomb attached to the underneath of the vehicle, Interior Ministry official Ramon Socias said. Police believe the attack was carried out by an ETA cell that came to the island specifically to carry it out and was not based there, he said.

The island's airport and ports were closed shortly after 4 pm (1400 GMT, 10 am EDT) and reopened just under two hours later, police said.

Mallorca, with its golden sandy beaches, mild Mediterranean climate and crystal clear waters is one of Europe's main tourist destinations and the explosion occurred at the height of the summer holiday season.

In June, about 2.6 million passengers used Mallorca airport while more than 22 million passed through it last year.

Most of the tourists come from Britain and Germany and tour operators said they were trying to make contact with them. A spokeswoman for British travel organization ABTA said there were an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Britons on the island Thursday.

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