A car bomb blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA exploded outside a bank after telephone warnings early today morning in the northern Spanish city of San Sebastian, a police spokesman said.
No one was hurt in the blast as police had already cleared the area following anonymous calls to the pro-separatist newspaper Gara and the local road safety organisation.
"At around 08:10 (06:10 Irish time) a Renault Clio blew up...close to a Banco Guipuzcoano office and causing only damage to property", said a spokesman for the Basque police force, the Ertzaintza.
Ms Maria San Gil, leader of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party in the Basque province of Guipuzcoa, immediately blamed the blast on ETA.
"This attack shows what ETA and its political representatives intend for the Basque Country -a land immersed in fear and ruled by the law of terror", she said.
ETA habitually uses car bombs and shootings as part of its long-running campaign for independence for the Basque Country. The group has murdered around 800 people since the late 1960s.