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MADRID - Spanish police on Thursday found a car packed with explosives near seaside resorts on Spain's southern coast and said ETA Basque separatists could be planning summer attacks against the tourist industry.
It was the first explosives find in Spain since ETA formally called off a ceasefire two weeks ago.
Spain's Civil Guard found 130kg of bomb making chemicals as well as timers and detonators in a car near the town of Ayamonte, 2km from the Portuguese border.
The Ford Focus car, hired in Portugal, was likely abandoned to avoid a nearby police checkpoint but the explosives found in its boot were not primed to detonate, the Civil Guard said.
The vehicle's occupants may have been preparing an attack or delivering explosives, said Civil Guard chief Joan Mesquida.
"ETA has struck against tourist areas many times and tried to attack an industry vital to the Spanish economy ... security forces are working with the idea that attacks of this nature could take place," Mesquida said in a press conference.
The find 200km west of Seville follows a formal announcement by ETA two weeks ago that its 14-month-old ceasefire was over and it would attack the Spanish government on all fronts.
The ceasefire was effectively broken by an ETA bomb attack at Madrid airport in December in which two people were killed.
Spain's socialist government had attempted peace talks with ETA last year but called them off after the airport bomb.
ETA has in the past waged summer bombing campaigns targeted at seaside resorts and roads packed with tourists heading for the Mediterranean coast. It has attacked towns such as Benidorm and Alicante to scare of northern Europeans and damage Spain's lucrative tourist industry.
Ayamonte, though on a relatively undeveloped stretch of coast, is an increasingly popular holiday destination.
Police found a bomb-making manual written in Basque in the car. They were searching for another vehicle that may have been driving ahead of the Ford Focus and alerted it to the police checkpoint.
ETA has killed more than 800 people in four decades of struggle for the independence of Basque territories in northern Spain and southern France.
- REUTERS
