Thursday, March 11, 2004

Attention Americans: They just interviewed a guy on Antena 3 named Michael from the United States. He said he had Spanish and American nationality, and lives and works in Madrid. His spoken Spanish was not very good. He was on one of the trains and two different bombs went off in his car. He suffered fairly mild injuries and was taken to the hospital in a police van.

So far the death toll is given at between 142 and 170. The number of wounded must be at least several hundred. At the Hospital Gregorio Maranon, they received 250 wounded. Their "catastrophe plan" is in effect, with all shifts on duty. They have performed 35 operations; six died on the table. Among the badly wounded are five children.

All of the wounded have apparently been evacuated and now they are removing the dead from the trains. At El Pozo they are lining up the body bags on the station platform. Many of the people on board the trains were university students and immigrant workers. There are four investigating magistrates on the scene, including Ruiz Polanco and Garzon. These are the people responsible for the death count of 142.

What we know so far: There were thirteen backpack bags, each loaded with fifteen kilos of titadine. Eleven of them went off in four different trains, two at Atocha, one at El Pozo, and one at Santa Eugenia. The police say that because of the explosive used it's a 90% probability ETA did it. They also say that a new technique was used in the making of the bombs.

Anyone needing information should call 112. The other numbers we gave are only for family members of possible victims, so don't call them unless you have reason to believe that one of your relatives might have been on one of those trains.

The government is saying relax and keep calm. That sounds like good advice.

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