Madrid — Spain was ripped apart by its own version of Sept. 11 yesterday when a devastating series of bombings shattered commuter trains and railway stations across Madrid, killing 192 people and injuring more than 1,400. The attacks were initially blamed on Basque separatists but may have been work of al-Qaeda.
Ten bombs, which some reports said were carried in backpacks, exploded within a span of several minutes during rush hour, turning rail carriages into twisted steel and covering platforms with corpses and human remains. Rescue workers reported hearing the eerie ringing of cellphones on the bodies of the victims as desperate relatives tried to contact their loved ones.
The Spanish government, which faces a general election Sunday, immediately blamed ETA, the notorious Basque terrorist group. "This is mass murder," a sombre Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said after an emergency cabinet meeting. He vowed to hunt down the attackers and ruled out negotiations with ETA.
But that early assessment of blame was thrown into doubt when a van was discovered containing an Arabic-language audio tape and seven detonators, and a British-based newspaper reported receiving an e-mail that purported to be from al-Qaeda and claimed responsibility for the attack.
Spain was a high-profile ally of the United States and Britain during the war in Iraq, and Osama bin Laden has threatened to punish Madrid for supporting the coalition. In London, the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi said it had received a claim of responsibility issued in the name of al-Qaeda, signed by a group calling itself the Brigade of Abu Hafs al-Masri.
"This is part of settling old accounts with Spain, the crusader, and America's ally in its war against Islam," the message said.
Mr. Aznar had a different assessment, saying that "March 11, 2004, now holds its place in the history of infamy." King Juan Carlos added his own condemnation in a televised address, saying that the day had "engulfed Spain with profound pain, repulsion and anger."
Campaigning for Sunday's election was called off and the government declared three days of mourning for the most deadly terrorist attack in Europe since the bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. It was also 21/2 years to the day since the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
The bombs began going off at 7:39 a.m., targeting three railway stations, including the historic Atocha station, as well as four trains running along commuter lines.
The scenes at the bomb sites were of "butchery on a brutal scale," according to firefighter Juan Redondo, who arrived at El Pozo station east of downtown Madrid. At least 70 bodies lay on the platform, near the spot where two bombs ripped through a double-decker train.
"It looked like a platform of death," he said. "I've never seen anything like it before. The recovery of the bodies was very difficult. We didn't know what to pick up." One body was blown onto the station's roof, he said.
"I saw legs and arms. I won't forget this ever. I've seen horror," Enrique Sanchez, an ambulance worker returning from the Santa Eugenia station, told Associated Press.
Throughout the day, thousands of people across the country responded to pleas for blood donations — so many, in fact, that hospitals had to turn some away. The spirit of assistance extended to more than 1,300 emergency workers, who were mobilized across the capital, and to buses, private cars and taxis, all of which were reported to have helped ambulances carry the wounded to hospitals or helped their relatives to find them.
The atmosphere was more subdued as night fell at the Gregorio Maranon Hospital, where more than 200 victims were treated yesterday. A trickle of relatives were still turning up to look for the missing.
But outside the medical teaching building, a young woman chain-smoked cigarettes as she paced and waited for news of a relative who was a regular passenger on one of the trains that was hit.
"We've been looking for my sister-in-law since 9 o'clock this morning and we still have no idea where she is," said the woman, who declined to provide her name. "We've gone to the hospitals and to the morgue and still we can't find her. She's not on any list."
Sympathy continued to pour in from capitals worldwide last night, led by Spain's partners in the European Union and neighbouring France, which raised its terror-alert level, having dealt with apparently unrelated railway-bomb threats itself in recent weeks. Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham also condemned the attack, and U.S. President George W. Bush called Mr. Aznar to express his country's "deepest sympathies," saying "We stand strong with the people of Spain."
Spanish officials focused on the investigation. The government said tests showed that the explosives used were made from titadine, a type of dynamite normally used by ETA.
The focus on ETA prompted consternation in Spain's Basque region, where demonstrators took to the streets to protest the bombings, but Interior Minister Angel Acebes said police and security forces were not ruling out "any line of investigation."
U.S. officials noted that al-Masri, the group that sent the e-mail responsibility claim, has made bizarre assertions in the past, including taking credit for last year's blackouts in the United States and London, which were the results of technical faults.
