Police swooped on suspected sympathisers of the Basque separatist movement ETA yesterday as hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets to condemn a booby-trapped toy car attack which killed a grandmother and blinded her grandson. Eight people were arrested on suspicion of links with ETA - which has said it had nothing to do with the attack which outraged Spain - and Basque police seized 160 kg of explosives, arms and a booby-trapped car primed for use.
Spanish officials have blamed radical young separatist sympathisers for Monday's blast which killed a 62-year-old grandmother and injured her 16-month-old grandson in San Sebastian.
But ETA saw the hands of Spain's security services in the attack in an attempt to arouse public hostility to the separatist movement.
The Basque Interior Minister, Mr Javier Balza, said yesterday's swoop was on three Basque towns - Zizurkil, Zaldibia and Lasarte - where apartments and a garage were searched. Five of those detained were said to belong to an ETA commando group known as Gurruntxa. The links to the separatist organisation of the other three detainees were still being investigated, he said.
Mr Balza said the explosives probably came from the recent theft of materiel in France. Automatic pistols, assault rifles and a sawn-off shotgun were also seized as well as several grenades. He said the booby-trapped car which had been primed for use within "the next few days" was found in a garage at Lasarte.
As the swoop was going on, hundreds of people took to the streets of San Sebastian to express their anger over Monday's outrage. Similar demonstrations took place in other towns throughout the Basque country. All political groupings in San Sebastian, including ETA's political wing, Batasuna, condemned the attack.
The remote-controlled toy car responsible for the blast had been packed with explosive powder and a trigger device. The blinded baby boy was still in a critical condition yesterday. The child's injuries ranged from a skull fracture to brain damage.
His grandmother, Mrs Francisca Araunzetamurgil Alkorta, who was sitting with him in the back seat of the family car, bled to death after a fragment of the toy cut an artery in her neck. The child's four-year-old brother was slightly hurt, but their mother escaped injury. Both were in the front seat of the car, police said.