One officer was slightly hurt yesterday in a car bomb attack on a Guardia Civil barracks in Calahorra (La Rioja) yesterday lunchtime.

The bomb went off at around 2pm, half an hour after a warning call made by an ETA representative to the DYA traffic information line.

The car used in the attack - a blue Honda Civic - had been stolen at gun point hours earlier in Alto de Herrera. Its owners were found bound and gagged on a mountainside close to the border between La Rioja and Álava at around 4.30pm.

The warning call gave security forces enough time to clear the area which had been packed all morning with people taking part in, or watching, Holy Week parades.

The explosion caused substantial damage, not only to the police station itself, but also to a number of residential properties nearby, some of which were evacuated.

Since the end of the ceasfire last June, ETA have carried out thirteen attacks, killing three people.

Two Guardia Civil officers - Fernando Trapero and Raúl Centeno - were shot dead outside a shopping centre in Capbreton in southwest France on December 1st last year and former socialist councillor, Isaías Carrasco, was gunned down outside his home on Mondragón two weeks ago, on March 7th.

Thousands of people took part in a protest demonstration to condemn the attack outside Calahorra Town Hall yesterday evening.