Police search debris for clues

2004-04-04 21:45

Leganes - Dozens of police and fire fighters on Sunday sifted through blood-spattered rubble in a block of flacks in the suburbs of Madrid, where four top suspects in last month's train bombings blew themselves up during a police raid.

Hundreds of people gathered to stare at the wrecked facade of the building, where a massive blast the previous night killed four suspects including the alleged mastermind of the March 11 attacks in Madrid.

Several floors of the building collapsed in the explosion, which flung debris across the street and entirely destroyed the suspects' first-floor apartment.

Body parts covered with pieces of tarpaulin lay strewn across the rubble, inside the gutted building and across the courtyard, while a corpse lay draped in a white sheet at the bottom of the compound's emptied swimming pool.

The scene remained cordoned off by police on Sunday as investigators combed the area for evidence.

The four-storey building, propped up with hydraulic beams to prevent its collapse, was expected to be demolished in the next few days.

Spain's Interior Minister Angel Acebes said the slain suspects had belonged to the inner circle of people behind the Madrid blasts and insisted the stake-out, in which a police officer was killed, had averted more attacks.

Neighbours described the four men, who had rented a first-floor apartment in the block for the past month, as friendly but discreet.

"They were north Africans aged around 30, very pleasant but we hardly ever saw them," said Jose, a 60-year-old who was visibly shaken by the events of the previous night.

"They had only been here for a month and their shutters were always down."

Jose and his wife Maria waited outside until 03:00 as the drama unfolded before their eyes.

As onlookers discussed the past night's events, some elderly people complained that landlords were too slack in checking the identity of their tenants, particularly in the case of illegal immigrants.

- AFP