Station quiet as Spain mourns

2004-03-12 13:02

Madrid, Spain - Commuters sobbed, lit candles and left flowers on Friday at Madrid's Atocha station, a normally bustling railway hub turned sadly quiet after the devastating terrorist attacks.

Trains had to roll past two of the bombed-out shells of the four trains hit in the attacks on Thursday. The hulks were still on the track just outside the station.

"I came with a lot of fear," said a tearful Isabel Galan, 32, who travelled from the suburb of Fuenlabrada. "I saw the trains and I burst into tears. I felt so helpless, felt such anger."

A day after 10 bombs killed at least 198 people and injured more than 1 400 at three stations, Atocha was eerily quiet. Few people spoke.

All trains arriving at the terminal had black sashes of mourning stuck to the windows of the drivers' cabins.

Four of Atocha's six regional and commuter rail lines were open to traffic and most trains were running as normal. Trains on the route hit by the bombs were redirected to the city's other main terminal at Chamartin in the north of the city.

People are affected

"There are less passengers. We can see people are affected, "said RENFE official Jose Martinez, 43. "I don't normally look at the passengers, but today I did."

Many of the trains were half empty entering the terminal, which normally sees tens of thousands of workers, students and shoppers arriving during the morning rush hour.

Inside and outside the station, people placed candles, flowers and handwritten messages on the ground. Others left small postcards of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ.

Throughout Madrid, many people decked their balconies with Spanish flags or white banners, with black ribbons attached.

Families continued to arrive at hospitals in search of their missing loved ones, hoping they might be among the injured. P> Makeshift morgue

At a makeshift morgue set up at a convention centre on the city's outskirts, Spanish Red Cross official Miguel Angel Rodriguez explained the grim procedure when people arrive seeking news of missing relatives.

"We don't have a list of the dead. Only the injured. If the name they give us is not among the injured, they are taken into a small room to be with the rest of their family and they are offered the services of a psychiatrist," Rodriguez told the national news agency Efe.

One train was attacked in Atocha, another as it entered the station and two others were bombed at stations just outside Madrid.

Although the train bombed in the station had been removed, the tracks were still covered with glass and charred pieces of personal belongings such as gloves, shoes and bags.

Spain's national papers were filled with gruesome photographs and chilling accounts from survivors and eyewitnesses.

Isabel Pinto at El Pozo station told the El Mundo newspaper that she "saw people escaping from the train asking, 'Have I got eyes?' 'Have I got a face?' 'How am I?' 'Is any of me missing?' They were like zombies."

- AP