MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spain has blamed a powerful bomb explosion at the country's busiest airport Saturday on Basque separatist group ETA, declaring it a violation of a nine-month cease-fire.
Several people suffered minor injuries when a stolen van exploded in a parking lot near terminal four at Madrid's Barajas International Airport, which had been evacuated after police received a warning.
One man is reported missing after the explosion. If found dead, he would be the first fatality caused by ETA in three years..
Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the government condemned the attack, "which breaks nine months without violence on the part of ETA, which breaks the permanent ceasefire."
But the head of Batasuna, a political party banned for links with ETA said the peace process would continue.
"The peace process...is not only not over, but now it is more necessary than ever," Arnaldo Batasuna told a news conference in the Basque city of San Sebastian, Reuters reported.
A Spanish interior ministry official earlier said two calls had been received by police, the first a warning, the second specifying the type of car and claiming it was the work of ETA.
An end to ETA's cease-fire would be a major blow to Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Witnesses described a huge column of smoke billowing out from the scene of the blast.
Samantha Graham, an employee of CNN's parent company who was in an airport concourse for a flight, said hundreds of people evacuated the terminal through jetways and have gathered outside on the airport tarmac. (Watch smoke billowing from airport )
ETA announced a "permanent" cease-fire last March, raising hopes for an end to nearly 40 years of separatist violence blamed for more than 800 deaths and thousands of injuries.
In the autumn, so-called low-level street violence resumed in the northern Basque region -- which ETA is seeking to make an independent nation -- as pro-ETA youths burned buses and automatic bank teller machines and carried out other attacks.
In late October, authorities blamed ETA for the theft in Nimes, southern France, of 350 pistols and revolvers and 10,000 rounds of ammunition from an arms factory.
Saturday's explosion, which came shortly after the execution of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, raised fears of a retaliatory strike in a country that has suffered attacks in response to its support for international military operations.
In March 2004, 191 people were killed by bomb attacks on Madrid commuter trains. Those attacks, blamed on al-Qaeda-linked militants, led to Spain's withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
Barajas airport is Spain's busiest, handling more than 40 million passengers a year, according to the airport's official Web site.
CNN's Madrid Bureau chief Al Goodman contributed to this report
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, however i think that we are better than a year ago, here, even the most radical activists are learning that the way is the one without violence (you can feel that everyday around the hardcore bars and pubs) , and that is a great step forward. Now the spanish goverment should keep trying, because this has been a message for them.
Originally Posted by mikelzapi3
