Family's hope for son is dashed after bombings

MADRID - A Bulgarian family had to wait until yesterday to find out if a young relative was dead or alive.

A young man was in hospital, still unidentified, and two families - one Romanian, the other Bulgarian - thought he might be theirs, the relatives said outside a Madrid hospital.

"There's a boy in there and it's either ours or hers," said Emver Mihaylov, whose cousin was missing. "His parents and the mother of the Romanian boy have gone in to see."

An hour later the Bulgarian family found out the young man alive in hospital was not their relative. Their relation was dead.

Dozens of people milled around outside the hospital, some waiting for news, some hoping to find friends, some who had had a near-miss and others who were looking for someone to talk to.

The regional government says all the injured have been identified. But many shocked and grieving families have not been able to find them.

Roses and red candles were placed outside the Gregorio Maranon hospital, along with a poem, signed "Emilia", written about the attacks. A stream of friends and relatives who have tracked their loved ones came to visit patients.

"I've just seen my friend with her face burned and her feet blown off," said Angel Buri, a builder from Ecuador who survived the attacks.

"The train I was travelling in blew up ... I can't forget it," said the 42-year-old, who was prescribed tranquillisers in hospital.

Jose Luis Moran was visiting his 34-year-old pregnant sister.

"Although she's in a serious condition, the child is all right," he said.

An Ecuadorian woman with damaged lungs and a burned face was told that her husband, travelling with her in the same train, was dead.

"She was sitting down and he was standing by the doors ... he disappeared," the woman's friend said.

The distraught parents of a 22-year-old Colombian girl had arrived in Spain on Saturday to see their unconscious daughter.

Her uncle was looking on the bright side: "Her lungs are damaged, they're a bit burned. But at least she has opened her eyes."

- REUTERS