Anti-terrorist squad breaks bank siege

Press, 26 May 1981, Page 8

Anti-terrorist squad breaks bank siege

NZPA '' Barcelona A ' squad of Spanish antiguerrilla police stormed a bank, in central Barcelona in a blaze of gunfire yesterday killing one of 11 gunmen but freeing more than 100 hostages unharmed. The Spanish Interior Minister (Mr Juan Jose Roson) said seven of-the gunmen had been captured alive after surrendering. Three apparently slipped from the bank among escaping hostages as the special squad attacked. Mr Rosen said the bank raiders did not appear to belong to the extreme Right or the security forces, despite their earlier reported demand for the release from jail of the alleged members of a Right-wing coup bid in February. The police squad stormed the branch of the Banco Central, Spain’s secondlargest, 37 hours after the gunmen, who had claimed to number 24, took their hostages at the week-end.

The anti-guerrilla squad burst into the bank through several entrances, guns blazing, in an unexpected attack partly seen on live television. During the assault screaming hostages — some with their hands raised in terror — spilled from the bank into the broad plaza in front of

the five-storey building as the police commandos fired to hold the terrorists at bay. “'Don’t shoot!” shouted one of the hostages as. the assault began. ‘‘They’re going to kill us all!” . Barcelona radio stations suddenly stopped broadcasting live reports of the police assault, apparently on orders from the authorities, during the shoot-out. ' - Before they went off the air shouts of “throw down your guns” and “surrender” could be heard. ’ '■•*-•; More than 40 hostages managed to escape out of one of the bank's doors and crawl to safety to an underground station entrance. Others broke out through the roof of the five-storey building. Then the squad moved into the bank and after a confused and tense wait, Mr Roson announced that the police operation had ended successfully without any of the hostages being hurt. Apart from the dead gunman the only person seriously hurt appeared to have been a 32-year-old bank clerk shot in the leg early on in the siege. “We have failed in our attempt and we want to get out of the country,” the leader of the terrorists hadearlier told a Barcelona radio station that managed to

get a call through Ur the bank. “The proposition is that we want to leave Spain.” Officials later identified him as Joan Jose Martinez Gomes, aged 25, from Almeria. However, Government negotiators, led by Juan Rovira Tarazona, Madrid's special . representative in north-eastern Catalonia, insisted that the terrorists surrender and free all of their hostages. “Your attempt has failed.” t'a voice boomed out over a loudspeaker mounted on a green Civil Guard armoured personnel carrier that approached the bank. The terrorists fired seven shots at the approaching vehicle, while one of the hostages, speaking through a loudspeaker, appealed to the Government to heed the gunmen's demands. According to the gunmen and some hostages explosives were laid along windows and inside the building with the aim of blowing up everyone if the police tried an assault. But officials said the security forces found no explosives at the bank and that, apart from one sub-machine-gun, the hooded raiders were armed only with revolvers and knives. Officials said only seven gunmen had so far been

positively identified, they came from all over Spain except for the Basque country, scene of political violence this year.

The arrested gunmen were being interrogated by members of the Civil Guard and the police, they said. Three, disguised as hostages, were apparently seized at police headquarters where they had been taken for identity checks. The officials said the bank was finally assaulted once it was clear the gunmen were concerned only with saving themselves and the lives of the hostages were no longer in danger. The Civil Guard chief, General Jose Aramburu Topete, said the greatest success the para-military unit achieved was proving they were in no way involved with the gunmen.

Among the officers whose release was demanded by the gunmen was the Civil Guard colonel, Antonio Tejero Molina. who led more than 200 fellow guardsmen in an 18hour occupation of the Spanish Parliament during February's coup bid.

Soon after the bank raiders’ demands were made known, all four officers dissociated themselved from the gunmen and urged the release of the hostages.