Madrid Train Bombing

[RudyRockvilleMD]

The Washington Post, and its web-site, www.washingtonpost.com, had comprehensive articles on the bombing attacks of four commuter trains in and around Madrid, Spain on March 11.

I first learned of the bombings on the Fox 5 Ten PM News, Thursday night March 11, and it had some mistakes. The news gave the impression only one train was attacked when in fact fourtrains were attacked. They called the train an express train when it was clearly a commuter train. They also said Al Qaida claimed the responsibility for the attacks when in fact it was an Islamic extremist group with possible ties to Al Qaida which claimed responsibility.

There appears to be two schools of thought regarding the culprits. Some blame a Basque extremist group while others think it may have been an Islamic extremist group with possible ties to Al Qaida

Two of the attacks occurred just outside of the Atocha Station which is Madrid's main station, although international trains from France and Portugal use the Chamartin Station which is north of the city center. The two stations are connected by a tunnel, and some commuter, regional, and long distance trains for the south of Spain (including TALGO's) originate in Chamartin.

Atocha station is really two stations in one - Atocha Cercanias and Porto Atocha. The latter station is a stub station at ground level which serves Spain's high speed trains between Madrid and Seville while the former station is in a tunnel under Porto Atocha, and it is used by the commuter (Cercanias) trains as well as the other trains.

Four explosions occurred in all. Two of the explosions actually occurred on board the trains, one of which occurred as the train was entering the Atocha Cercanias station, one explosion occurred on a suburban station platform, and one explosion occurred on the tracks as a train approached Atocha Cercanias Station. Fortunately the blasts did not occur while the trains were in the tunnel in the Atocha Cercanias Station or the death toll would have been much worse. I have done a little railfanning in Madrid, and I have noticed both parts of the Atocha Station are very busy throughout the day, and the Cercanias trains are heavily used.

[Anonymous]

As I said on the Hocky coverage V. train Bomb coverage thread yesterday, This attack IS probably the spanish equivalent (So far) of what Sept. 11 is in the US