Madrid - Spanish police defused a powerful car bomb in the northern town of Getxo early yesterday after a failed explosion attempt blamed on the Basque separatist group ETA, a police spokesman said.
The bomb, comprising 50 kg of explosives, was timed to explode just 15 minutes after a warning call to police but the detonator failed to work, officials said.
Residents from the Neguri area of Getxo - close to the Basque region's biggest city, Bilbao - were evacuated as police used a robot and small explosive charges to blow open the car's boot where the explosives were packed into a rucksack.