Parcel bomb blast at Spanish newspaper injures two

A parcel bomb exploded Friday at the Barcelona office of one of Spain's leading newspapers, injuring two policemen and causing extensive damage, news reports said.

A parcel bomb exploded Friday at the Barcelona office of one of Spain's leading newspapers, injuring two policemen and causing extensive damage, news reports said.

The attack was carried out by two men and a woman, all armed with handguns, who said they belonged to a shadowy, decades-old leftist group known as GRAPO, said the targeted newspaper, El Mundo.

The three attackers walked into a six-storey building in Barcelona and left a parcel bomb in a trash bin on one of two floors occupied by El Mundo staff, said Antonio Campos of the paper's national desk in Madrid.

The building was evacuated. When the device detonated, it injured two policemen who had rushed to the scene, news agencies said, quoting the Interior Ministry.

Campos said the blast caused considerable damage and may have knocked out the bureau's computers.

Police blame GRAPO for three explosions Wednesday at temporary employment agencies in Vigo, Seville and Valencia.

GRAPO has killed some 60 people in sporadic bombings and shootings since it emerged in the 1970s.

The group has never stated clearly its political aims although it is believed to go after what it considers to be rightwing and capitalist targets.

Its name - October First Antifascist Resistance Group - comes from October 1, 1975 - the date of the group's first major attack in which it killed four policemen in reprisal for the execution of five suspected Basque separatists by the regime of Gen. Francisco Franco.