Tourists and holidaymakers are being urged to be on their guard after a car bomb exploded outside a Spanish hotel, injuring 13.
An Irish tourist and a young British woman were reported to be among those hurt by the bomb, planted by Basque separatist group ETA - most of them as they scrambled to evacuate their rooms in the Cala Font hotel in Salou on the Costa Dorada.
A spokeswoman from the Department of Foreign Affairs could not say last night how many Irish people were in Salou, as no visas are required to visit there, but she believed that "quite a lot" must be in the resort because Spain is one of the most popular holiday destinations for Irish people at this time of year.
She added that, despite reports, the department had had no information about any Irish people being injured in the blast.
Thirteen people were treated for minor injuries, she said, and none of those were Irish. She said that if any Irish had been hurt in the blast their injuries must have been so minor that they did not need treatment.
ETA has been waging an increasingly vicious campaign this summer targeting Spain's lucrative tourist industry.
The blast happened at 8 a.m. local time on Saturday after 824 guests fled two hotels and an apartment block. An anonymous caller who claimed to represent ETA had alerted authorities to the bomb about an hour before it went off in the parking lot.
None of the injuries was serious, although a BBC director, Mr Duncan Hess, who was on holiday nearby, said there would have been "untold casualties" if there had been no warning. "If there hadn't been a warning, and you really don't like to exaggerate these things, but there would have been untold casualties. The place is in a hell of a mess," he said.
The British woman was understood to have suffered a sprained ankle as she escaped along with other guests, many of whom were asleep in their rooms when the warning was received. She was treated at the scene. Others were injured by flying debris when the 50 kg device went off. Two of those injured were civil guard officers helping in the evacuation.
The British Foreign Office urged visitors to be aware that future attacks may not carry warnings and bombs may explode prematurely. A spokesman said: "There is still a possibility of being in the wrong place at the wrong time." But he said the department was not advising Britons to give up their Spanish holidays.
Witnesses described how thick black plumes of smoke were visible high in the sky above the popular resort town south of Barcelona.
Mr Xavi Blanco, who works at the Cala Font hotel, said the explosion was "very, very loud". He added: "We condemn what has happened here and we are trying to return to normality."
Tour operator Thomson said the injured woman was continuing her holiday despite her ordeal.
The tourists staying in the Cala Font hotel at the time of the blast were Irish, British, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, German and Russian.
The bomb is the latest strike by the terror group, which has stepped up its campaign in recent months and caps a bad year for Spanish tourism.
Last Wednesday, the AVE high-speed rail link between Madrid and Seville was disrupted when two small bombs exploded, causing damage to the track near Cuidad Real. The authorities attributed the blasts to ETA.
Last month, a bomb failed to go off at Malaga airport, causing disruption for thousands of holidaymakers, and an ETA terrorist blew herself up with her own bomb at a holiday apartment in Torrevieja, eastern Spain.
Tourism brings in about $60 billion (£51 billion) a year for Spain, the world's third most popular holiday destination after France and the US.