Agence France-Presse
December 19, 2014 1:30pm
Man rams gas-laden car into Spain ruling party HQ
A man rammed a car loaded with gas cylinders into the Madrid headquarters of Spain's conservative ruling party on Friday, police said.
The canisters did not explode and there were no injuries, a police spokeswoman told AFP. Some reports and officials said the car also contained explosives.
Details of the suspect's possible motives remained unclear on Friday morning.
Police initially said he was thought to be a ruined businessman, but other officials later said he was a mentally ill, jobless 37-year-old from the eastern Teruel region.
Photographs from inside the building showed the dark blue four-door car covered in wreckage after coming to a halt in the lobby.
"A man rammed his own car into the front of the Popular Party headquarters in Calle Genova in Madrid," a police spokeswoman said.
"Inside the car there were two canisters of butane and a substance that we have yet to analyse," added another spokeswoman.
She would not confirm media reports that the car contained industrial fertiliser.
Officers arrested the suspect at the scene of the crash which occurred before dawn at about 7:00 am (0600 GMT).
- 'Terrorism' ruled out -
Police cordoned off a large area around the party building in central Madrid, causing traffic jams and blocking people from getting to work.
"There was a cordon and police told me I couldn't pass because there had been some kind of attack," said Giuseppe Di Bella, a 28-year-old lawyer who works opposite the party building.
"They said there was a car carrying gas cylinders. It's a bit much for a Friday morning."
Several metro stations were closed and services on several lines were suspended for several hours before resuming normal service, police said.
The deputy leader of the party, Maria Dolores Cospedal, said that "the possibility of a terrorist attack has been ruled out."
"We wish to send a message of calm and thank the police for their quick and efficient response," she said in a statement.
The party's parliamentary spokesman Rafael Hernando said: "It obviously causes great alarm that someone could attack a political party -- mine or any other."
Since coming to power in 2011, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his Popular Party have imposed tough economic cuts that they say were needed to drag Spain out of an economic crisis.
Rajoy says Spain is now recovering, but the unemployment rate remains extremely high at close to 24 percent.
