MADRID, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Forty-six people were slightly injured Wednesday when a car bomb, planted by suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA, exploded outside a police compound in northern Spain, officials said.

The blast, which occurred at around 4:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) in the city of Burgos, ripped away most of the outer wall of the 14-storey barracks, and gouged a crater that had been filled with water from broken underground pipes, an emergency services spokesman said.

He said 46 people, including women and children living in the barracks, were slightly injured, most suffering cuts and bruises.

The barracks had been evacuated and fire fighters were going through the building, the spokesman added.

Miguel Alejo, a regional ministry representative, told reporter at the scene that the explosion appeared to be an attack "like those that the ETA killers carry out."

The group usually gives advance warning of its attacks, but no warning was received this time, he said.

The ETA, listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, is blamed for the deaths of more than 800 people in its 40-year campaign to carve a Basque homeland out of northern Spain and southwestern France.

更多英语新闻