Armed police patrol Madrid after blast kills 8, injures 39

Press, 28 May 1979, Page 9

Armed police patrol Madrid after blast kills 8, injures 39

NZPA-Reuter Madrid Heavily armed police reinforcements patrolled Madrid’s streets yesterday after eight persons were killed, and 39 injured, in a bomb attack on a crowded bar frequented by Right-wingers.

Special protection was given to Left-wing political party offices after about 1000 angry Rightists outside the wrecked cafe threatened reprisals. “We want machine-guns, and we want to use them against the Reds in the streets,” one youth told reporters. Saturday’s blast, the worst bomb attack in the period since the death of General Franco in 1975, brought the number of dead in political violence in Spain to 17 in two days. Basque guerrillas killed three senior Army officers in Madrid on Friday in an apparent attempt to provoke the conservative military on the eve of the week-end’s Armed Forces Day celebrations in the southern city of Seville.

Their funeral on Saturday was accompanied by a demonstration of some 2000 Right-wingers who gave the

Fascist salute and chanted “Government traitors” and "Army to power.” The skg bomb, which was planted in the basement toi- i lets of the fashionable California 47 cafe, killed and in- . jured several middle-aged women, hospital sources say. Scores of people ran screaming from the bar, and passers-by helped carry opt 1 injured on shattered pieces of furniture. Right-wingers gathered outside and shouted for the Army to seize power. Sev- I eral assaulted photographers and jostled policemen. N o-o n e immediately | claimed responsibility for 1 the attack, but suspicion centres on the Basque separ- ’ atist group, E.T.A., and the shadowy G.R.A.P.O. (October i First Anti-Fascits Resistance Groups). i Both organisations have . recently stepped up their guerrilla campaigns, and the police on Saturday killed

two suspected G.R.A.P.O. f members after they shot and wounded a policeman at a I road block near Teruel in 5 eastern Spain. \ The Prime Minister (Dr < Adolfo Suarez) and the t interior Minister (Mr Antonio Ibanez Freire) returned t to Madrid from the military { ceremonies in Seville after ] learning of the bomb blast. < The latest spate of attacks < just before Armed Forces j Day parades was seen as a c bid to provoke a Right-wing backlash. , The guerrillas apparently 1 believe this would lead to popular unrest and enable f them to grab power. Queen Sophia, addressing c the Armed Forces ceremon- ' ies in Seville, appealed for ’ calm, and said: “At a time when the Army once again c feels the wounds of hatred t and terrorism. I ask you to l remember those who have 1 given up their lives for the c peace of Spain.” v