Funeral masses across Spain

2004-03-13 11:17

Madrid - A series of funeral services were to be held across Spain on Saturday, the third and final day of a national mourning in memory of the 199 victims killed in the bomb attacks on four Madrid commuter trains.

In Alcala de Henares, the town east of the capital which was the starting point for the trains blown up in Thursday's blasts, the diocesan Bishop Jesus Catala was to celebrate the first - and one of the main - solemn funeral masses.

This was to be followed by religious services in a host of other locations, some individual masses in the hometown of blast victims, others collective services as Spaniards continued to grieve over the tragedy that brought eight million people out on the streets in protest on Friday.

The government remains convinced that the attacks were the work of the Basque separatist group ETA, though the scope of the massacre has others blaming Islamic extremists allegedly seeking to punish Spain for the Madrid government having backed last year's war in Iraq.

- AFP