MADRID, Spain (AP):
TEN TERRORIST bombs tore through trains and stations along a commuter line in Madrid during the height of morning rush hour yesterday, killing at least 190 people and wounding more than 1,400 before this weekend's general elections.
The Government blamed the Basque separatist group ETA for the worst attack in Spanish history. "This is mass murder," said Prime Minister José Maria Aznar, after an emergency Cabinet meeting, vowing to hunt down the attackers and ruling out talks with ETA.
"No negotiation is possible or desirable with these assassins who so many times have sown death all around Spain," Aznar said. The Interior Ministry said tests showed the explosives used in the attacks were a kind of dynamite normally used by the separatist group.
But a U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anony-mity, said, "It's too early to tell (who planted the bombs), we're not ruling anything out."
The bombs started exploding around 7:30 a.m. in a commuter train arriving at Atocha station, a bustling hub for subway, commuter and long-distance trains in Spain's capital. Blasts also rocked trains and platforms at two stations on a commuter line leading to Atocha.
Worst hit was a double-decker
train at the El Pozo station, where two bombs killed 70 people, fire department inspector Juan Redondo said.
"It looked like a platform of death," he said, adding that one body had to be picked off the train station's roof. "I've never seen anything like it before. The recovery of the bodies was very difficult. We didn't know what to pick up."
Interior Minister Angel Acebes said security services blamed ETA, which has been fighting for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain, because the group attempted a similar attack on Christmas Eve, placing bombs on two trains bound for a Madrid station that was not hit yesterday.
No arrests were reported. France, long a haven for ETA members and key in helping Spain fight the group, said it tightened border checks, stopping people on foot and searching cars.
The Government has convened anti-ETA rallies nationwide for this evening.
