Spain: The worst terrorist attack in Europe happened in Madrid a year ago tomorrow. Jane Walker recalls the day and how the bombs ripped apart the lives of so many commuters
March 11th last year began like any other morning for Maribel Alonso as she prepared to start her day. She was in her apartment overlooking the railway line near Madrid's Atocha station.
Shortly after 7.30am she heard a loud explosion.
"I rushed out on to my balcony to see what had happened. Then there was a second, even louder one," she remembers. "I saw a train literally blown into the air. I saw bodies and wreckage flying and landing on the tracks."
She was an eyewitness to one of the worst terrorist attacks in Europe which occurred as thousands of commuters packed the rush-hour trains into Madrid.
It was an atrocity that turned a normal morning's journey into tragedy for thousands when a series of explosions blasted through four trains as they neared their destination. All the trains had departed from, or stopped at, Alcala de Henares station, 30km from Madrid.
Ten almost simultaneous explosions - the first at 7.39am and the last only three minutes later - left 191 passengers dead, and more than 1,600 injured as their trains approached Atocha, Santa Eugenia and El Pozo stations.
The city came to a standstill as everyone prepared to help. Off-duty doctors, nurses, police and security forces reported for duty.
Routine operations and clinics were immediately suspended, wards cleared to make room for casualties and every ambulance in the Madrid region rushed to the scene.
A makeshift morgue was set up in a huge exhibition hall near Barajas airport, where 68 teams of forensic experts began the harrowing task of trying to identify bodies.
The majority had been identified and returned to their families by 9pm that night, although many were so badly mutilated that they could only be identified by wedding rings, DNA samples or dental records.
Carlos Divar, president of Spain's high court, the Audiencia Nacional, was full of praise last week for the way everyone worked together calmly and efficiently. "They witnessed horrific scenes, but continued their work which included sorting through plastic bags containing body parts - one even contained an amputated hand still clutching a ringing mobile phone. That was when one of our most senior judges broke down and wept," he said.
Mobile phones played an important part in events of that day. The abiding memory of one of the rescue workers was going into a wrecked carriage and hearing dozens of phones ringing - and going unanswered - and it was a mobile phone which led to the first arrests two days later.
Spain has suffered many bloody terrorist attacks, mostly by Eta, over the past 30 years, so it was not surprising that the finger of suspicion immediately pointed to the Basque terrorist group. "This attack carries all the hallmarks of Eta," declared the interior minister, Angel Acebes, although other experts - including some anti-terrorist experts - had their doubts.
It was almost certainly the PP government's refusal to accept the evidence put before them which lost them the elections only three days after the attack, and cost Mr Acebes and the rest of the cabinet their jobs.
Within hours of the attack, evidence of Islamic terrorism began to emerge.
A Renault van containing traces of explosives, detonators and an audio tape with verses of the Koran was found outside Alcala de Henares station; a claim on behalf of al-Qaeda was received by a London-based Arabic newspaper; the explosives used in the attacks were not Eta's usual choice; and a video-tape with another al-Qaeda claim was found outside the Madrid mosque.
Another vital clue emerged when police shifted through abandoned possessions on the trains. One bag contained an unexploded bomb connected to a mobile phone. The sim card in that phone led them to a phone shop in Lavapies, a multicultural area of Madrid popular with the north African community. On March 13th police arrested Jamal Zougam, the Moroccan owner of the store, two other Moroccans and his two Indian employees.
Since then, 75 people, one as recently as last Tuesday, have been detained, 25 remain in custody, and the others are out on bail.
Spanish police and intelligence officers had been watching members of the north African community in Spain since the 1990s, but never thought they would attack on Spanish soil. "They thought Spain was an al-Qaeda safe-house for logistics and planning from where they could send their recruits to fight their jihad in other countries," says investigative journalist José María Irujo, author of the book El Agujero (The Hole) which traces the path of the Islamic fundamentalists in Spain.
He has studied Islamic fundamentalist terrorism for many years and says: "In 2002 I wrote an article saying that Spain had changed from rearguard to vanguard and become al-Qaeda's principal base in Europe. I was accused of publishing inaccurate information and spreading unnecessary alarm."
There are some 400,000 Moroccans living legally in Madrid, and probably more than 100,000 illegal ones. But, unlike the violent aftermath of Islamic terrorist attacks and murders in other countries, madrileños behaved with admirable maturity. Their reaction was one of shock, horror and even anger, but none of violence against the Arab community. Many Arabs joined the millions who marched in protest in streets across Spain after the attacks.
Mustafa el M'rabet, president of the Moroccan immigrants' association Atime, said his community was as shocked as everyone else by the horror. "Terrorism is new to Morocco. We were used to seeing terrorist attacks on the TV, but the first time we witnessed it first hand was in Casablanca (in 2003). Any of us could have been in that square or on one of those trains - in fact, three Moroccans were, and died on March 11th," he said.
Madrid's mayor, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, is proud of the tolerance of his fellow citizens. "We didn't have one single episode of racism or xenophobia reported to police," he said.
Angel Zurinaga was a passenger travelling the 50km from Guadalajara to his office in Madrid.
He remembers little of the blast that hit his train at El Pozo station, but recovered consciousness shortly afterwards with serious injuries to his neck, chest and back. He is still receiving therapy, and cannot bring himself to travel on a train. He says he has no grudge against Arabs, most of whom are peaceful citizens.
Mr Zurinaga's wife, Marisa, was waiting to catch a later train when her husband was injured, and so escaped. But she finds it harder to forgive. "Marisa doesn't even like standing next to an Arab," he says.
As the country prepares to mark the first anniversary of the atrocity tomorrow with a day of national mourning and the inauguration by King Juan Carlos of a commemorative garden containing 192 cypress and olive trees - one for each victim and one for the police officer killed as he went to make an arrest - neither Mr nor Mrs Zurinaga, or any of the Association of Victims of March 11th, will be joining them. "We prefer to stay at home and pay our own homage quietly," said Pilar Manjon, the president of the M-11 Association. Her 20-year-old son died in the blast.