ETA bomb claims two lives

A girl of eight and a 50-year-old man were killed when a car bomb exploded in front of Civil Guard barracks in a Spanish resort.

Several people waiting at a nearby bus station were injured by the blast, believed to be the work of the outlawed Basque separatist group ETA.

Streets surrounding the area in Santa Pola, near Alicante on the Costa Blanca, were cordoned off by police fearing there could be another car bomb.

ETA, which has attacked other Spanish resorts this summer, has frequently used car bombs as part of its 32-year-old campaign

More than 800 people have been killed since 1968 when ETA began to press its demands for an independent state in Basque areas of northern Spain and south-western France.

Its previous fatal attack was on 21 March, when a socialist politician was shot dead in a bar in the Basque town of Orio.

Until today's attack, the ETA car bombs have appeared designed to generate fear rather than death. Police have struck back with a series of arrests, raising to more than 100 the number of ETA suspects arrested in Europe this year.