Bomb found on Spanish rail line

Dynamite may be same as used in March attack

? A Spanish railroad inspector found a 26-pound bomb hidden in a bag on a busy high-speed line Friday, and police said the device may contain the same dynamite used in last month’s Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.

Authorities immediately stopped six bullet trains using the Madrid-Seville line after the bomb was discovered before noon under a track about 40 miles south of Madrid. About 1,600 passengers left their trains and were taken to their destinations by charter buses.

No train was near the site when the bomb was discovered, said officials with the state rail company RENFE. The bomb failed to detonate because it wasn’t properly connected, officials said.

The discovery rattled a country still traumatized by the March 11 attacks in Madrid, which officials have blamed on an Islamic extremist group from Morocco. Authorities on Friday stepped up security on Spain’s entire rail network, and used soldiers to provide surveillance.

“A handful of madmen are behind this, but the rule of law will prevail,” said Juan Jose Imbroda, president of the Spanish enclave of Melilla on the Moroccan coast.

Imbroda was among travelers stranded at Madrid’s Atocha station — where trains were bombed last month — after his southbound train was canceled.

Judge Teresa Palacio, the magistrate on duty Friday at the National Court, said there was no evidence pointing to either the armed Basque separatist group ETA or the al-Qaida terror network in the failed attack, a court official said. ETA has targeted Spanish rail lines in the past.

Interior Minister Angel Acebes said it was too early to say who planted the bomb. However, authorities believe it was placed at the scene Friday because the bag was dry and the ground was wet, and a 450-foot-long cable attached to a detonator looked new.

Initial analysis of the bomb suggested it used the same brand of Spanish dynamite — Goma 2 Eco — used in the March 11 backpack bombs that also wounded more than 1,800 people.