Two people were killed and four injured, including a local socialist councillor, in a car bomb attack Thursday in Spain's Basque region that police blamed on the separatist group ETA.
A team of ETA activists triggered the bomb by remote control as Councillor Ignacio Dubreyl Churruca was driving by, but he escaped with only minor injuries, said a spokesman for the Basque regional police.
The two men killed were Angel Santos Larranaga and Josu Leones Azkona, of the electrical materials firm, Elektra, said a spokesman for the Nuestra Senora de Aranzazu hospital.
They died of their injuries shortly after the device rocked the northern coastal town of Saint Sebastian. Dubreyl's bodyguard and two other electrical workers were also injured.
The blast went off on the outskirts of the town, opposite Martutene station, near the prison, shortly after 8:00 am (0700 GMT).
The councillor was pulling out of the station, on the way to his job as a teacher at a training institute, when the bomb exploded.
Police estimated that the device contained five to six kilogrammes (11 to 13 pounds) of explosives.
Officials said the head of the Basque regional government, Juan Jos Ibarrexte, would appeal for a mass demonstration later Thursday to protest ETA's ongoing campaign of violence.
ETA who has frequently used car bombs to target government officials in their 32-year-old battle for an independent Basque homeland in the region along Spain's border with France.
The organisation was also blamed a car bomb attack last month, also in San Sebastian, that killed a Spanish navy cook.
Police said they also suspected that one of two car bombs that went off in Madrid on February 12 was planted by ETA and may have been intended for a magistrate in the public auditors office.
The latest killings take the death toll to 26 in attacks blamed on or claimed by the group since it broke a ceasefire in December 1999.
The attack comes two days after the announcement that elections to the Basque parliament are to be held next May -- SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain (AFP)
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