Spanish police: Bomb found in Basque area

Explosives ready for ‘immediate’ use; find comes days after Madrid blast

Europe video

Will Polanski be released on bail?
Nov. 30: Roman Polanski, the film director accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl more than 30 years ago, is set to be released on house arrest later this week. NBC’s Stephanie Gosk reports.

Swiss voters approve minaret ban

WTO protest turns violent

NBC World Blog

NBC News correspondents and producers around the globe share their insight on news events.

Breaking news alerts (about 1 per day)
Click here to sign up or text NEWS to MSNBC (67622).

Find more alerts at alerts.msnbc.com

Your weather

Your forecast

Click to see the weather outlook for your destination

updated 11:45 a.m. ET Jan. 4, 2007

MADRID, Spain - Police in the Basque region said Thursday they had found a bomb in northern Spain, five days after a car bombing in Madrid that was blamed on the separatist group ETA and killed one person.

Nearly 220 pounds of explosives were found in a drum near an abandoned car outside the Basque town of Amorebieta, and they were rigged to be used in an attack, a spokesman for the Basque police said.

On Dec. 23 police found an arms cache near Amorebieta with around 120 pounds of explosives.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

The Basque interior department said the explosives found Thursday were ready for "immediate" use and only lacked a detonator.

Police searching the area noticed the car had been parked for several days, and upon examining it found suspicious stains inside. They expanded their search and found the drum with the explosives, the department said.