MADRID — A car bomb injured at least 43 people near a convention center in the Spanish capital Wednesday as police rushed to evacuate the area after a telephone warning from ETA, the violent Basque separatist group.
The bomb, estimated to contain more than 60 pounds of explosives, went off hours before King Juan Carlos I and Mexican President Vicente Fox were to visit an art fair at the center. Authorities said there was no threat to the leaders and that none of the injuries were serious. Nonetheless, it was the biggest attack blamed on ETA in nearly three years and, analysts said, seemed intended to show that the group remained a threat.
The attack came amid escalating political tension over a gathering campaign for Basque independence. Paradoxically, ETA finds itself weakened on two fronts.
Police in Spain and neighboring France have hammered at the group's leadership, finances and support structure, most recently with a sweep that rounded up 14 people across Spain on Tuesday. Meanwhile, ETA's political wing cannot participate in upcoming Basque regional elections because it has been outlawed.
"Clearly, ETA is at its weakest moment in 25 years," said Juan Aviles, director of the University Institute for Research on Interior Security in Madrid. "It's down to the remnants. But the end of terrorist groups can be bloody. And the situation in the Basque Country is more complicated than ever; anything could happen."
Like three other car bombings attributed to ETA in the last two months, the attack appeared designed to spread fear without killing anyone, Aviles said. At 8:55 a.m., a caller to a Basque newspaper warned that a bomb would go off in half an hour outside the Palacio de Congresos, Madrid's main convention center. Such warnings before bombings are an ETA trademark.
Police rushed to cordon off the area. The explosion about 9:35 made a thunderous noise, sent up a plume of white smoke and shattered windows in office buildings. Flying glass caused most of the injuries.
Six policemen were among the injured, and 24 people were briefly hospitalized, authorities said.
Nonetheless, the king and the Mexican president attended the inauguration of the art fair as scheduled at 7 p.m. Fox may have been a symbolic target because of Mexico's crackdown on fugitive ETA suspects. A Mexican judge approved the extradition of six accused Basque terrorists last week.
