Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - PALMA DE MAJORCA, Spain (AFP) – Three bombs exploded in restaurants and a shopping centre on Majorca Sunday, officials said, just 10 days after a deadly attack by Basque separatists ETA on the holiday island.

No one was injured in the small blasts, all in the city of Palma de Majorca, local authorities said.

The bombings came after a telephoned warning from a group claiming to be ETA, which allowed police to evacuate some areas on the Spanish Mediterranean island.

The first blast hit around 2:30 pm (1230 GMT) in women's toilets at a beachfront pizza restaurant.

The second explosion happened shortly afterwards in another restaurant nearby.

Then around 6:00 pm a third small bomb went off in a shopping centre located under a major city square. Some small damage was reported in the attacks, authorities said.

A major manhunt has been launched with around 1,600 members of the security forces involved in the search.

A spokesman for the Basque regional government's interior ministry said a taxi company in the Basque region, in northern Spain, had received earlier Sunday a telephoned warning in ETA's name that there were several bombs planted in Palma de Majorca, a popular destination for visitors.

Sunday's series of bombs was the second attack on the resort island at the height of the tourist season, following a bombing on July 30 that killed two Civil Guard officers for which ETA claimed responsibility.

Security officials cited by the Spanish media speculated the latest bombings and the July 30 blast were carried out by the same ETA unit on the island.

"Everything indicates there is an ETA unit in Majorca," said Bartomeu Barcelo, prosecutor at the high court of the Balearic Islands, cited in reports.

Founded half a century ago, ETA is blamed for the deaths of 828 people in its violent campaign for an independent Basque homeland encompassing parts of northern Spain and southwest France.

It is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the United States.

Earlier Sunday, in a statement released to the pro-independence Basque daily Gara, ETA claimed responsibility for the July 30 car bomb attack outside a police barracks on Majorca that killed two members of the Civil Guards paramilitary police.

The group also said it was behind the June 19 car bomb that killed a 49-year-old police inspector in the Basque town of Arrigorriaga.

ETA's statement claimed more attacks, including the car bombing of a Civil Guards barracks in the northern city of Burgos on July 29 that injured 40 people.

Majorca is part of the Balearic Islands archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, a popular tourist destination especially among Britons and Germans.

Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia enjoy holidaying on the island, and this year arrived at their summer residence on August 2.


(AFP/Jaime Reina) A police officer walks beside a police cordon set up around a restaurant in the central district of Palma de Mallorca.