A Spanish Socialist party deputy and his family had a narrow escape yesterday when a bomb hidden beneath their car in the centre of Malaga failed to explode. The incident occurred less than 2 km from where the Popular Party councillor, Mr Jose Maria Martin Carpena, was killed by an ETA gunman last Saturday.
Still shaking from his experience, Mr Jose Asenjo, secretary general of the Andalucian branch of the Spanish Socialist Party, said he heard a strange click and saw smoke coming from the engine as he turned the ignition key to drive with his wife and daughter to visit a friend in hospital. Bomb disposal squads later defused a bomb with a faulty detonator which had been hidden beneath the car.
Only hours before Mr Asenjo's escape, another powerful bomb exploded in a shopping complex in the Basque capital of Vitoria. There were no injuries in the early-morning blast although the building was virtually destroyed.
Police, who had received a warning call shortly before the explosion, said it was the work of terrorists and not another incident of kale baroka, street violence, when gangs of pro-ETA youths cause havoc and damage property in the Basque Country.
The two latest incidents brings the number of ETA attacks in Spain in less than a week to five. Last Wednesday, a powerful carbomb rocked the commercial centre of Madrid, injuring nine people. Mr in Carpena was killed by a lone gunman outside his Malaga home and on Sunday afternoon another car-bomb blasted the Civil Guard barracks in the small town of Agreda, 270 km north of Madrid.
ETA has carried out 13 terrorist attacks, killing six people, since it ended a 14-month ceasefire at the end of last year.
Police yesterday issued a photograph of the man they want to interview in connection with the killing of Mr in Carpena. Mr Gorka Palacios Alday (25), is a known member of ETA and has a long record of terrorist activity in the Basque Country.
Mr Carpena's widow, who was with her husband when he was shot, told a local newspaper she at first thought he had been the target of a mugger and only later realised he had been killed.
"I only hope they are made to suffer the way I and my daughter are suffering now," she said.
Mr Santiago Lopez Valdivieso, the director general of the Civil Guard, said yesterday the two recent attacks in Malaga show that ETA has re-formed their Malaga commando after it was dismantled by the security forces three years ago, and warned it could strike again at any time.
The centre of Madrid was once more the scene of another mass anti-ETA demonstration last night. The demonstration was originally called after last week's car-bomb in the Spanish capital, but was given added impetus by the latest attacks.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators stood beneath a banner reading, "For Peace, for Liberty. Terrorism NO!" last night as a strongly worded communique was read out, calling on the Basque Nationalist Party to break its links with EH, the political front for ETA.
