Madrid Bombings  11.03.04

On the morning of 11th March 2004, Spain experienced the worst terrorist attack in Europe since the Lockerbie bombings in 1988. A series of explosions in Madrid killed 191 people and injured over 1,500.

13 explosive devices were hidden in rucksacks and left on commuter trains in working-class districts of the city, packed with people on their way to work. Most were heading to offices and factories in Madrid or parents taking their children to school.

There was no warning given and it is believed that the bombs were detonated remotely, using devices attached to mobile telephones. The first explosion went off at 07:40, ripping through a train at Atocha station. It was followed almost immediately by blasts at El Pozo and Santa Eugenia stations. A total of ten bombs went off within minutes of each other, during the busy morning rush hour. 67 people were killed at El Pozo alone, when two bombs destroyed a double-decker train.

After the blasts, the Spanish Police carried out controlled explosions of three remaining bombs that had failed to detonate. The explosions were so severe that many bodies were impossible to identify. Wreckage, body parts and personal belongings were strewn all around the stations and railway tracks, as fireman struggled to release injured passengers from the twisted metal of the train carriages.

Madrid’s medical services were stretched to the limit, as the injured were taken to local hospitals by a stream of ambulances. Hundreds of people lined up outside the hospitals to donate blood, in an effort to help the passengers hurt in the blasts. Families waited anxiously as lists of the dead and injured were posted outside hospitals.

The death toll rose during the day, as people who had survived the explosions died from their injuries. The youngest victim was a seven-month-old baby girl, who died on the operating table despite the doctors’ best efforts to save her.

The Spanish Prime Minister, José María Aznar, commented, “March 11th has taken its place in the history of infamy.”