ETA bombs PSE headquarters in Lazkao, Guipúzcoa

This morning at around 3 am a bomb exploded in the Basque Socialist Party headquarters (PSE) in Lazkao in the province of Guipúzcoa. Nobody was injured in the blast although the explosion cause serious material damage to the party headquarters according to sources from the interior department of the Basque Government.

An anonymous caller who said that they were speaking on behalf of ETA phoned the the DYA ambulance service in San Sebastian at 1 am. The caller gave a warning that an explosion would take place at 2 am. Shortly before the warning was received police patrolling the area had detected a suspicious rucksack which had been placed in front of the door of the PSE headquarters. This discovery led to the area being cordoned off immediately, a nearby bar being evacuated and residents in the immediate area being warned.

The explosion caused serious damage to the PSE headquarters and to the area cordoned off by the police.

According to some reports the whole of the facade of the building has been damaged by the explosion which was reported to have been ‘quite strong’.

This morning the police have begun to gather evidence and to clear up the mess caused by the bomb. The PSE headquarters had recently been reopened for use after 9 months of renovation work.

Patxi Usabiaga, the Mayor of Lazkao, will speak at midday today to condemn the bombing. It is expected that in his speech he will say that ‘society is fed up, that ETA do not represent anything and that the radical left Basque movement known as ‘abertzale’ is well represented by political parties and that these type of acts are not constructive but destructive’.

The General Secretary of the PSE in Guipúzcoa, Iñaki Arriola, who speaking to Radio Euskadi this morning said that the house belonging to a PSE councillor in Azpeitia had also been attacked with paint.

He said that he and party members were unfortunately used to the permanent presence of ETA but that ETA need to understand that they are not going to achieve anything.

In the early hours of this morning molotov cocktails were thrown at two banks in Tolosa, Guipúzcoa. The first attack which only damaged a cash point took place at 0.30 am and was directed against a branch of BBVA. Shortly following this at 1.00 am another attack was directed against a branch of Bankoa as a result of which the door was damaged.