MADRID, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Spanish police spent 24 hours searching for, and defusing a small bomb placed near railroad tracks Friday, CNN reported.
The device was the work of the two suspected Basque separatists who unsuccessfully tried to strike a major Madrid railroad station Christmas Eve, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
Police deactivated the bomb before it could explode at the Chamartin train station in Madrid, packed with holiday travelers.
The same ETA suspects, under questioning, revealed they had placed another bomb along railway tracks in northeastern Spain, said the Interior Ministry spokesman, who asked not to be identified.
Thursday, police blocked off 7 miles of tracks, and about 24 hours later found the bomb near the town of Samper de Calanda. The bomb was in a cooking pot and had 4.5 pounds of dynamite.
The ETA separatist group is blamed for more than 800 killings in a 35-year fight for Basque independence and is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
