The Sabadell bombing was a

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...

ing carried out by the armed Basque

separatist Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...

group

ETA Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

Sabadell Sabadell () is a city in Catalonia, Spain. It is in the south of the ''comarca'' of Vallès Occidental and its joint capital (co-capital), on the River Ripoll, north of Barcelona. Sabadell is located above sea level. Sabadell pioneered the Ind ...

, Catalonia, Spain on 8 December 1990. The target was a convoy carrying eight members of the National Police force on the way to police a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

game between

and

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a association football, football club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, that competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, ...

. Six of the police officers were killed, with the other two injured. Eight civilians were also injured in the attack, which was ETA's deadliest of 1990.

Background

In the early 1990s, ETA had stepped up its attacks in Catalonia in an attempt to gain worldwide publicity and secure political concessions by threatening disruption to the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

in Barcelona. Police had obtained documents revealing these plans in the week before the attack.Seis policías muertos y varios heridos en Sabadell en un atentado de ETA con coche bomba
El Pais, 9 December 1990 Two weeks earlier, on 23 November, ETA had attacked the Guardia Civil barracks in

Sant Carles de la Ràpita Sant may refer to: People * Alfred Sant (born 1948), Maltese politician * Andrew Sant (born 1950), English-born Australian poet * David Sant (born 1968), Catalan director, actor and writer * Indira Sant (1914–2000), Indian poet * James Sant ...

in Catalonia, though no one had been injured.

Attack

At approximately 1345 on the day of the attack, ETA placed the car bomb on the junction of Josep Aparici and Ribot i Serra streets, where vehicles would normally have to slow down to pass.La Vanguardia
9 December 1990, p15 The car bomb, located some 500 metres from the main police station, was detonated remotely from the nearby Gran Via, the main thoroughfare in the town, from which there was easy access to the A7 motorway, allowing the perpetrators to escape. The bomb caused a large explosion, mostly destroying the second of the two vehicles of the police convoy and caused extensive damage to nearby buildings, with shrapnel found up to 400 metres away. Five of the eight police officers in that vehicle were killed instantly, with a sixth dying shortly afterwards. The other two policemen were seriously injured. A further eight passersby also sustained injuries in the attack.

Bombers

Police sources attributed the attack to ETA's Barcelona Commando Unit. They immediately identified Joan Carles Monteagudo and Juan Félix Erezuma, the two suspected leaders of the cell, as participants in the attack. On 30 May 1991, the day after a bomb attack in Vic had killed nine people, Monteagudo and Erezuma were killed in a gunfight with

Civil Guard Civil Guard refers to various policing organisations: Current * Civil Guard (Spain), Spanish gendarmerie * Civil Guard (Israel), Israeli volunteer police reserve * Civil Guard (Brazil), Municipal law enforcement corporations in Brazil Histori ...

Lliçà d'Amunt Lliçà d'Amunt, or Llissá de Munt, is a municipality in Vallès Oriental, Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by it ...

, near Barcelona.Los dos jefes del 'comando Barcelona' mueren en un tiroteo un día después del atentado de Vic
El Pais, 31 May 1991

References

{{coord missing, Spain 1990 in Catalonia 1990 murders in Spain 20th-century mass murder in Spain Car and truck bombings in Spain December 1990 crimes December 1990 events in Europe Explosions in Catalonia ETA (separatist group) actions Improvised explosive device bombings in 1990 Mass murder in 1990 Mass murder in Catalonia

Bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...

Terrorist incidents in Catalonia Terrorist incidents in Spain in 1990