MADRID -- Spanish police now say the gunmen who seized a Barcelona bank with more than 250 hostages were not seeking the release of four jailed military men, but only the money in the bank's vaults.
A police report released Wednesday said the gunmen intended the hostage-taking and the political demands as a ruse to distract authorities while they robbed the bank and then escaped through a tunnel into the city's sewers.
The report was based on interrogation of nine gunmen seized after anti-terrorist commandos stormed the Barcelona office of the Central bank to end a 37 hour seige and free 263 hostages.
The bank seizure May 23 raised a political storm in Spain after government spokesman said the gunmen were hired by wealthy rightists seeking the release of four military officers held in an abortive military coup Feb. 23.
The police report said the leader of the gunmen, Jose Juan Martinez Gomez, had changed his initial story and was now saying he alone planned the assault.
Martinez Gomez told police he hoped he could escape with 'as as much money as possible' in the confusion he foresaw after an exchange of the bank hostages against the military men who led the coup attempt.
The report said the gunmen forced the hostages to dig a tunnel in hopes of connecting it with the sewage system for their getaway.
'Martin Gomez...expected that police would center on the expected grave disturbance of public order caused by his demand to swap the hostages for the men implicated in the acts of Feb. 23,' the report said.
'This would give them (the gunmen) the chance of escaping with as much money as possible through the sewage system.'
In his first interrogation Martinez Gomez said he met a rightist in Perpignan, France where he was given instructions and money for the robbery.
Police said intensive search by Spanish and French authorities failed to locate the man, whom Martinez Gomez claimed to known only by his first name.
According to police, Martinez Gomez had $70,000 in a Swiss bank account and used the money to finance the bank takeover. The report said nine pistols, one Sten submachine gun and one revolver was found on the gunmen. Two of the pistols were stolen from bank guards.
Police said nine men were arrested in the bank, one was killed and one fled. The report said the search continued for a former bank employer who gave the bank robbers information on the bank's lay-out, and for the fugitive member of the band.
