el jefe de la europol desmiente que eta este detras del atentado de madrid

The director of the European police organisation Europol has cast doubts on Spanish government claims that Basque separatist group ETA carried out the deadly Madrid bomb attacks.

The bombings "don't correspond to the modus operandi which ETA adopted up to now," Juergen Storbeck told reporters on Thursday during a visit to the Italian capital Rome.

At least 186 people died and over 1000 were injured in the attacks on Thursday.

"ETA has always committed attacks targeted at particular people and if there was a danger to the public at large, they gave a warning," he said.

Difference

The fact that there was no warning in this case, said Storbeck, distinguished it from previous ETA bombings. That was why "it's still not clear who the authors are", he said.

"ETA has always committed attacks targeted at particular people and if there was a danger to the public at large, they gave a warning"

Juergen Storbeck,
chief, Europol

"It could have been ETA, even if there is still no certainty," he said.

He added it was possible the bombings were the work of a radical ETA cell.

"The Spanish authorities have made a lot of arrests recently, but there could be other cells which have gone unnoticed and could be more extremist," Storbeck pointed out.

Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes said earlier there was "no doubt" that ETA carried out the attacks.

Europol was created in 1994 to coordinate crime fighting in the European Union.