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Madrid: A powerful car bomb exploded on Wednesday outside a police station in northern Spain, killing one officer and wounding four others in an attack blamed on the militant Basque separatist group ETA, police said.
A van packed with explosives exploded before dawn outside a Civil Guard station that also houses officers and their families in Legutiano, a small town near the Basque capital, Vitoria. Authorities said some 40 people, including women and several children, had to be evacuated from the building following the blast.
The Civil Guard killed was identified as Juan Manuel Pinuel Villalon, 41, who was married with one child.
The last fatal attack by ETA was the shooting of a former town councillor in the Basque town of Mondragon on March 7, two days before Spain's general election.
ETA usually phones in warnings before it strikes but this time it did not, and the bomb was large, an official with the Basque regional interior ministry said. She spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with department rules.
The group has staged more than 20 attacks since ending a ceasefire in December 2006, after peace talks with the government failed to yield concessions for the separatist group. The death toll stands at six, including Wednesday's fatality.
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