More than 300 firefighters, paramedics and police called to the crash were confronted by a grim scene. “The plane was completely broken and full of bodies,” one airport worker told El Pais.

“There is nothing left of the plane; it is totally burned,” said a civil guard officer. “It’s the closest to hell I’ve ever seen. The corpses were boiling and we were burned as we retrieved them.”

Some reports suggested that 20 children and two infants were among the dead.

Smoke filled the air around the airport and could be seen eight miles away in Madrid city centre. Helicopters were called in to dump water on the burning fuselage as desperate attempts were made to rescue survivors. A makeshift morgue was being set up at Madrid’s main convention centre, officials said.

The Spanish development minister, Magdalena Alvarez, whose department is in charge of civil aviation, confirmed that 153 people had been killed, with 19 survivors. A Spanish emergency rescue official said many of the survivors were in a critical condition in hospital.

It was Spain’s deadliest air disaster since 1983, when a Boeing 747 operated by the Colombian airline Avianca crashed near Madrid on its landing approach, killing 181 people.

Alvarez said yesterday’s crash was an accident, but confirmed earlier reports that the plane had aborted one takeoff for checks, then later tried a second takeoff.

Earlier reports in Spain gave differing accounts of the likely cause of the crash. The newspaper El Mundo reported that the plane had broken in two after coming off the runway, with witnesses describing “a ball of flame”. El Pais, quoting a source with the national airport authority, Aena, said the plane’s departure had been delayed due to technical problems and was “probably caused” by faults with the engine. The plane only just managed to lift off the runway before crashing, the official said.

Consuelo Cabrera, the grandmother of one passenger, said that shortly before the accident he phoned her to say that the plane “had experienced problems” before departure, and that the passengers were waiting to see whether they would have to change planes. She said she had since been unable to contact her grandson, Marcos Hernández, 22, who was travelling with his girlfriend.

Other reports suggested that the plane crashed after its second attempted takeoff, leaving skid marks across the runaway. According to Aena, it had been due to take off almost two hours before the accident, at about 13.05 local time. The crash happened at 14.45.

Last night the Foreign Office was unable to say whether there had been British passengers on board the plane, a codeshare flight to Las Palmas with Lufthansa’s LH255. “We are on our way to the airport to check the flight list,” a spokeswoman for the British embassy in Madrid said.

Distraught families of those thought to have been on the flight gathered in terminal 2 at Barajas airport, pleading for information. At Las Palmas airport on the island of Gran Canaria, more families gathered. Some were escorted into a room away from the press and comforted by Red Cross psychiatrists.

Spanair said it would not release the names of the passengers until their relatives were informed.

The prime minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, broke off his holiday in southern Spain to return to Madrid, heading straight for the airport.

Accident investigators will be examining the debris in the coming days.

Last night TV and radio stations in Spain were asking questions of Spanair, the country’s second largest airline carrier, which is known for its ageing fleet of aircraft. Radio Punto, quoting a former pilot, said the airline had a good safety record.

In a statement on the its website, Spanair said only that it “regretted to confirm” that one of its planes had been involved in the incident.

Four days ago a Spanair flight from Lanzarote made an unexpected stop in Gran Canaria after it got into difficulties; the company later said that it had been a maintenance stop rather than emergency landing. Reports at the time questioned the safety of the plane, also a McDonnell Douglas MD-82. It was not clear last night whether the incident involved the same aircraft as that which crashed yesterday.

Sergio Allar, Spanair’s commercial director, said the company had “as yet no information” to release about the crash, adding: “We cannot speculate. The investigation is the responsibility of the civil aviation [authority].”

Inquiry may focus on reports of fire in left engine

The focus of the investigation into yesterday’s crash may concentrate on one of the plane’s engines. Reports suggested the aircraft that crashed at Barajas airport was on a second attempt to take off, although it was unclear at what stage the first attempt was abandoned. The aircraft apparently managed to get airborne but some eyewitnesses reported an explosion and there was said to have been a fire on the left-hand engine which caused the aircraft to crash and its fuselage to break up.

Kieran Daly, the editor of Flight International, said it would be premature to speculate on the cause of the accident, but in the absence of dangerous weather conditions a likely source of the problem could be inferred, whether or not the witness reports were accurate.

“Accidents on takeoff are relatively rare,” he said. “The obvious suspicion is some kind of engine problem. The suspicion is that for whatever reason the aircraft had insufficient power to pull away.”

The plane that crashed was a McDonnell Douglas MD-82. Daly said there had been “one or two nasty accidents” with the MD-80 series where the engines were to blame. While in general terms the most likely cause could be described as a “mechanical failure” the list of specific problems with the engine could be “endless”. Daly said he was puzzled because the aircraft should have been able to pull away on one engine.

It was confirmed last night that five experts from the United States’ National Transportation Safety Board would be flying in to assist the Spanish investigation.

There are 861 models of the MD-80 series still in service with a total of 57 airlines. The design first came into service in the 1980s.

In March, two US carriers, American Airlines and Delta, voluntarily grounded their fleets of MD-80s while their wiring was reinspected for compliance with federal maintenance rules.

At the time, analysts stressed that the move did not indicate the planes were unsafe, but they said that it nonetheless raised questions about their reliability given that the planes were ageing.

The MD-80 series is rated the second safest in the world by AirDisaster.com, with nine incidents in some 20m flights where a fatality was recorded that was “solely due to the operation of an aircraft”.

The MD-82 carries a maximum of 172 passengers, and has a cruising speed of 504mph with Pratt & Whitney engines.

Spanair is a small operator catering for the tourist market which runs a number of charter flights. The company is owned by the Scandinavian carrier SAS.

• Paul Lewis and Graham Keeley in Barcelona
• The Guardian,

At the scene of incident, which occurred just minutes before 10.00 am, the local police and Guadia Civil certified the death.

With this death, the total of workers killed in industrial accidents recorded in the province of Granada so far this year has reached 12 .

Can Spain weather the downturn? The Spanish property market has had its fair share of headlines recently. If you were to believe them then the image that comes across is of a country hit by a never ending stream of bad news.

Corruption scandals, illegal building, demolition threats, land grabs, over development, dishonest estate agents, incompetent lawyers, obscene commissions and countless stories of unhappy owners, buyers and investors.

Developers are going bust, estate agents are going out of business and there are bargains for those willing to take a risk with the Spanish property market.

But when you go beyond the headlines a very different picture emerges. Yes, Spain is suffering from the credit crunch, but so are many other countries. Banks are lending less and finance is harder to find. Repossessions are on the increase.

However there is a lot of good news. According to those actually working in Spain in the property sector it is the greedy and the unscrupulous that are going out of business and that can only be good for the property market and those investing in it.

The high end of the market, particularly property in gated communities, connected to golf courses that are well built and have quality finishes are still selling well, according to Paul Rossiter of Carrington Estates.

Although custom from the UK has dropped off there is still keen interest from the Swedes, Germans, Dutch and Russians. For the market to recover it is the quality of the investors and buyers not just quantity that matters.

‘There are a lot of speculators arriving who think they can get 30 to 40% off the asking price, but that just isn’t happening,’ said Andy Welland, who has worked in the property business in Spain for the last ten years. This is a trend seen by many agents. ‘I heard of one buyer who viewed a €550,000 property and wanted to offer €350,000, that is not realistic. But you can find good prices, there are deals to be done,’ said Rossiter.

Ten years ago Welland witnessed a lot of small businesses like butchers and hairdressers closing down and re-opening as estate agents. He saw the rise - and the fall - of big companies with branches in every town. They came, they saw, they fell by the wayside.

He saw greedy developers asking for mega prices, sales agents earning fat commissions persuading investors to buy multiple properties with unrealistic promises that they could sell before completion.

For developers it was a matter of pile them high, build them cheap. ‘People were persuaded to buy beyond their means. Where they should have perhaps bought one or two apartments off-plan they were convinced they could afford five, six, seven, even more,’ said Welland.

‘I have spoken to five people recently that have lost 30 to 40% because they could not afford to complete. Buying to flip is a very hard game to play. You must be prepared for the worst case scenario and that is to be able to complete.’

Mark Stucklin of Spanish Property Insight agrees. ‘The downturn in the market has put an end to speculative herd buying but does not deter genuine buyers who do their research,’ he said.

The issue of scandals is being addressed. ‘The Spanish government has focused a huge amount of effort on cleaning up the problems associated with illegal building and corruption involving the former mayor of Marbella,’ said Daniel Zartesh-Lloyd, operations and marketing manager of Malaga based Duchy Estates.

‘The developers who built illegally are currently going through the justice system and properties built without permission are going through a process of negotiation. This does not necessarily mean being demolished,’ he added. And as Rossiter points out the land grab issue is confined to one region – Valencia.

The Spanish government is also taking positive steps to make the real estate sector more transparent.

This is confirmed by property consultants Jones Lang LaSalle who’s 2008 Global Real Estate Transparency Index shows that Spain is indeed making real progress. Spain is now ranked 16th compared with 18th two years ago.

Dodgy agents are being clamped down on too. ‘The Spanish government has got really tough. Officials are conducting snap inspections to ensure that agents are adhering to regulations,’ said James Gonzalez, market analysts at Obelisk.

The volume of leads has fallen by around two thirds but the quality has improved. Agents also say they have more time to spend with clients. There is an oversupply of two bedroom, two bathroom properties but not all areas have suffered massive price falls.

Some completed developments are virtually empty but many in Spain are doing fine. ‘Certain urbanizations have kept their value very well. What has made Spain so attractive over the years such as climate, beaches and lifestyle doesn’t just disappear,’ said Zartash-Lloyd.

Full story from www.propertywire.com ]]> http://www.costatropicalnews.com/property-news/the-real-spain-is-poised-to-weather-the-property-downturn/feed/ http://www.costatropicalnews.com/general/a-painful-past-uncovered/ http://www.costatropicalnews.com/general/a-painful-past-uncovered/#comments Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:54:00 +0000 Captain Chaos http://www.costatropicalnews.com/?p=1288 For decades, the whereabouts of thousands executed in Spain under Franco’s rule have remained a mystery. Now the exhumation of mass graves is reuniting relatives with their loved ones’ remains - and revealing the country’s dark history. Graham Keeley reports

Driving past fields of sunflowers in the August sunshine, you see what at first appears to be a campsite with lots of cars and people milling around. They might be on holiday, enjoying a few days’ peace in this quiet pine forest in northern Spain. Look a little closer, though, and this clearing throws up something distinctly darker. A small group is peering into a hole the size of a bomb crater, about a metre deep. At the bottom are young archaeologists, dusting off the bones of five mangled skeletons. One skull looks up to the sky, its open-mouthed expression like a cry for help. Between what were the eyes, there is a hole. This is where a 9mm bullet entered.

In this wretched hole in the ground, near the tiny village of San Juan del Monte, in Castilla y León, are the remains of five more of Spain’s “disappeared”. Julio Maroto San José, his father Roman Maroto Rico, Rogelito Tello, and the brothers Marcos Parra Barberra and Salvador Parra Barberra were shot by supporters of General Francisco Franco on August 25 1936. The four youngest were all in their 20s; most had children. One night they were hauled off by civil guard officers in a lorry, made to dig their own graves and shot in the head. They were not condemned by a court. Their “crime” was to belong to the Spanish equivalent of the General Workers Union. Now, 72 years later, a small band of volunteers has arrived in San Juan del Monte to exhume the bodies of these five and give them a decent burial.

Historians believe there could be as many as 100,000 others like them, buried across the country. During the Spanish civil war, between 1936-1939, and afterwards while General Franco ruled Spain, his supporters, as well as the Republicans on the other side, carried out summary executions, dumping the innocent victims in hundreds of mass graves. Many of these have remained untraced until now.

Campaigners whose fathers, grandfathers or uncles disappeared into the night a lifetime ago have painstakingly traced them, by checking old prison records, yellowing council documents and speaking to those whose fading memories recall something of what happened to these people and where they might be buried. Often local people knew where the graves were but, until now, were too afraid to say. Spain preferred to pretend the killings never happened, but the volunteers are determined that the dead will not lie unremembered in ditches or pine forests. Almost every weekend, ageing relatives and members of groups such as the Association for the Recuperation of the Historical Memory (ARHM) carry out exhumations like the one at San Juan del Monte.

The Spanish state had offered little help before, but now Spain’s campaigning judge Baltasar Garzón has become involved. He is the first investigating magistrate to trace his own country’s disappeared. In the past, Garzón has investigated the crimes of dictators and their henchmen in foreign countries, notably Argentina and Chile. He is best known in Britain for his unsuccessful attempt in 1998 to extradite the late Chilean dictator General Pinochet while he was in London for medical treatment. After legal pressure from campaigners, Garzón has demanded that the official archives be opened to reveal just how many Spaniards were shot by firing squad - and where they might be buried.

What he is trying to establish is if there is any proof, as campaigners claim, that these murders were carried out on a systematic basis under orders from above. If a case can be made, the judge could decide to call for a Spanish version of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, though this seems unlikely. The response to Garzón’s demand for information from the defence and interior ministries was disappointing, both directing the judge to the archives of the civil guard held near Madrid. The archive is officially open to researchers, but campaigners suspect that much within it has been kept secret. Whatever the outcome, it will be a long and torturous process before the Spanish state opens up and reveals what it knows about those who went missing.

But these matters are far from the thoughts of the relatives whose loved ones died in the ignominious pit at San Juan del Monte so long ago. Rafino Tello Alonso, 75, watches as the bones of what could be his father Rogelio are carried piece by piece from the grave by archaeologists and catalogued in bags. Rogelio and the other victims all worked extracting resin from the pine trees that grow all over this part of Castilla y Léon.

“I was three when they took my father away so I don’t remember much about him at all. But all my life my mother and my family said I was like him. It has been very hard. I have felt angry all my life because I never had a father,” he says, tears welling up. “We were from Arauza de Miel [Arauza of Honey] nearby. It is a sweet name but this is a bitter story.”

Julia Maroto Velasco, 71, peers into the grave trying to guess which one of the skeletons might have belonged to her father Julio or her grandfather Roman. Her mother, Ana Velasco, 93, was two months’ pregnant with her when the men were called by civil guard officers who arrived on a lorry in Arauza de Miel. Roman protested when his son Julio was dragged off, so the civil guard took him too. They disappeared into the night and never came back.

“When they said they had found my father’s body, it was the best thing that happened to me,” says Julia, a retired servant. “Of course it makes me angry to think of these injustices. Growing up without a father or a grandfather was terrible. But I never thought I would get this happiness and sadness at the same time.”

Her cousin, Carlos Maroto Mate, 46, a lift mechanic from Barcelona, has brought his family to the exhumation. His sons Ruben, 19, and Raul, 13, watch quietly as the investigators go methodically about their business. At one point they find buttons, a belt buckle, then finally a 9mm bullet from a pistol.

“I wanted my sons to see this. It may be a little morbid, but it is real life and I want them to tell their friends about this.” Carlos says that his father never wanted to talk about how his brother Julio and father Ramon disappeared. “I think we should be talking about this now, not forgetting. What happens here today may only be a drop of water in the ocean, but it is important. I always said that this happened because of ignorance and fanaticism between families and neighbours.”

Other exhumations have been carried out in the Burgos region and across Spain in recent years. Now others like Julia are waiting to see if DNA tests will prove for once and for all where their relatives’ bodies lie. When these digs take place, researchers have to rely on old records that show the names of who went missing on certain dates. They cannot be certain they are digging up the people they believe lie in the mass graves. Sometimes they never discover the identities of the bodies.

The day after the exhumation at San Juan del Monte, scores of grey-haired relatives, mostly in their 80s or 90s, line up at the grandly named House of Culture, a council office in the nearby city of Aranda de Duero, to give their DNA samples. The building is more accustomed to putting on art shows than hosting this unusual reminder of Spain’s painful past, in which people wait patiently to have swabs of saliva taken. It can take up to a year for the team of investigators to match samples to fragments of bones. The defence minister, Carme Chacón, who hit the headlines earlier this year for being Spain’s first pregnant minister, is among those waiting to discover the fate of her great-grandfather. The body of Gonzalo Liras Cerezo is believed to lie in one of the mass graves in Burgos.

Francois Parra, 51, has come all the way from Lyon in France to have a swab taken. His grandfather, Pablo Parra Rincon, was arrested in Aranda de Duero, then disappeared in July 1936. His father, Bonifacio Parra, now 85, was forced into exile in France. He would have come to give DNA himself but was prevented by ill health.

In poor Spanish, Francois says: “My father said there is not a day that goes past that he doesn’t think about this. That’s why he was determined that I should come and do this.”

Others find it too difficult to talk about fathers, brothers or uncles who disappeared. One elderly woman is about to tell me about her brother when she stops mid-sentence and begins to cry quietly. It may have all happened over 70 years ago, but many of these people have not had the chance to address their pain until now.

The day after the exhumation at San Juan del Monte, relatives gather for a quiet service at the church in Arauza de Miel to finally lay them to rest. There are tears but above all relief. Nuria Polo, 34, a film-maker from Barcelona who is making a documentary about the relatives of the disappeared, has studied their reactions.

“You will notice that they are not afraid to talk a lot. They are sad but also glad. For them it is closure, a kind of relief,” she observes.

Over the past five years, volunteers such as Emilio Silva, whose grandfather, also called Emilio, was killed and his body dumped, have tried to trace the disappeared. Silva, president of ARHM, believes Garzón’s intervention could prove a turning point.

“He is the first judge to ask for the official archives to be opened. We believe this could produce information which proves that these killings were systematic. If that can be shown to be the case, perhaps we could see a commission set up to find the real truth or even call those who carried out these crimes to answer.”

Historians struggle to agree on how many bodies may lie in mass graves, as it is an impossible question to answer with certainty. Francisco Espinosa, a historian who carried out the most comprehensive research of mass graves in Andalusia and Extremadura in the west of Spain, believes as many as 100,000 people could have gone missing, their remains lying across the country.

“It is difficult to say though, as no national research has been done - just on a province by province basis - and records have been destroyed,” he cautions.

Professor Paul Preston, a British historian from the London School of Economics, is writing a book on the slaughter of innocents called The Spanish Holocaust.

“There were at least 101,000 people whose names we know - perhaps more. But of those lying in mass graves, I would estimate that there are at least as many as 30,000 across Spain.”

He is amazed at the lack of awareness outside Spain of the crimes committed by Franco and efforts to trace his victims. “I don’t think people have the slightest idea. It is big news to them. Franco still has an amazingly good press in the Anglo-Saxon world.”

Since the first graves were exhumed, it has proved hard work for the small but dedicated band of volunteers who battle with bureau-cracy to trace the disappeared. They often face obstruction from conservative officials or those who would rather not go into the subject. The mass grave at San Juan del Monte was only found after help from Emilio del Cura, a local man whose father witnessed the shootings but remained silent until years later.

A documentary about the issue, called San Cruz por Ejemplo [Santa Cruz for Example], tells the story of how this village in Burgos reacts to a team who come to exhume the bodies of a group of men killed by Franco’s supporters. There is one telling scene when the Austrian film-maker, Gunter Schwaiger, asks four old men sitting on a bench if they want to talk about it. There is silence. It perhaps symbolises the Spanish attitude to dealing with these horrors. But the mood is slowly changing. In 2007, Spain’s prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero brought in a law to offer justice to victims of Franco. The Law of Historical Memory - although tame compared with South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission - makes it easier to find and dig up graves, has ordered Francoist plaques and statues to be withdrawn from public buildings and opened up archives.

The conservative opposition Popular Party and others on the right, opposed the law, claiming that it would mean raking over the ashes of the dead. After Franco died in 1975 and democracy returned following 36 years of dictatorship, a 1977 amnesty law ensured that no one could be held to account for the crimes committed during El Caudillo’s regime. So it is still up to dogged volunteers such as José Ignacío Casado Ovejero, to honour the memory of those like the five who were shot at San Juan del Monte.

The 48-year-old civil servant brandishes a thick file with copies of grim prison and council documents detailing the names of scores of men and women who were from the Burgos area. Beside many of the names, a note reads: “Shot dead by firing squad.”

“Why do I bother?” he asks. “Like most others, my grandfather Alejo Ovejero was shot by Franco’s people. I want to find him and others like him.”

• Graham Keeley
• The Guardian

I know Spanish dogs are a little stupid but what is the issue with chasing cars?

I own a house in a remote village in the Contraviesa Mountains and the locals are lovely but their dogs are retarded.

Every time, no matter how many times, I drive through the village the Dalmatian crossed with Satan insists on chasing my car.

I have driven three different cars, slowly, quickly, slyly and with the skill of Lewis Hamilton but this bloody canine does insist on running alongside my car.

It not only runs alongside but is so close you would think it was a tuning appendage to my front wing.

Recently I have started to have some fun with this poor deluded creature.

I find driving very, very slowly drives it insane. So for a start I started to drive at a snails pace past it and let it do its merry dance. That got a bit boring so I thought I’d spice it up a bit.

First I went for slowly followed by an intense burst of acceleration and when it caught up, face in the windscreen braking till it was way past me.

It took a couple of weeks before it learnt this one but I was ready with a new strategy.

Next I went for drive into the village and stop dead. The devil dog would stand alongside the car barking as if its very life depended upon it but I was made of stern stuff. Five minutes after the patience of a saint would have been exhausted I gunned it out of the village with the dalmation/whippet/satan cross left in my wake.

Satisfied with my technique I continued to torment the tool of Beelzebub for over 10 days before instructions on new tactics had reached him from the dark lord.

The new tactic involved standing in the middle of the road and barking like a banshee. No matter if I drove up to it quickly or slowly it refused to move. Obviously the dark lord had sussed I was an animal lover and would not run over his creation.

A new tactic was required.

I decided drastic measures were called for. I had thought about how its mentor would have briefed it so I had to break some cardinal rules.

I arrived in the village with son of Satan blocking my path. I drove up slowly to not arouse suspicion (you never know who’s watching)

Now was the time for my cous de grace. I open my window and offered out a large, fresh, tasty lamb bone.

SOS (Son of Satan) took the bait and came running, but did not stop barking.

As he grabbed the bone my plan was complete and never again would “SOS” bother me again.

How you ask ??

I had watched a program about dog behavior by a guy who called himself “The Dog Whisperer” and he endorsed a whistle to re-enforce bad behavior.

I couldn’t find a whistle but the air horn I owned did the job really well.

]]> http://www.costatropicalnews.com/rant-and-raves/chase-me-chase-me/feed/ http://www.costatropicalnews.com/spanish-news/british-airliner-makes-emergency-landing-in-spain/ http://www.costatropicalnews.com/spanish-news/british-airliner-makes-emergency-landing-in-spain/#comments Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:32:48 +0000 Captain Chaos http://www.costatropicalnews.com/?p=1282 A British airliner en route to Portugal made an emergency landing in northern Spain Tuesday after the plane suffered an electrical problem, an airport spokesman said.

He said there were no injuries among the 107 passengers on board the Boeing 737 operated by Scottish low-cost airline Globespan Airways.

The plane was flying from Durham Tees Valley airport in England to Faro in Portugal when it was forced to land at Asturias airport at about 10:15am (0815 GMT) after the pilot signalled “a problem with the electrical system.”

The passengers continued their trip more than six hours later on board a new plane sent by the airline from Glasgow, the spokesman at Asturias airport said.

2008 Copyright AFP

Michel Maure, who told investigators he was one of the world’s best plastic surgeons, went on trial in June in the southern French city Marseille on charges of false advertising, deception, and causing involuntary injury.

The verdict was due in September, with prosecutors calling for a four-year prison sentence and a fine of 75,000 euros (110,000 dollars) but he went missing in July despite a court order restricting his movements.

A European arrest warrant was issued and he was finally arrested Tuesday in Rosas in northeastern Spain, the French police source said.

Nearly 100 victims had lodged complaints against Maure, 59.

Investigators have said that since 1995, the doctor had practised illegally, describing his clinic in Marseille as a “dirty and badly maintained facility” where his patients faced “an immediate risk of death or severe after-effects.”

Many of Maure’s mostly female patients decribed his methods as “violent.”

He carried out painful procedures, such as liposuction or the insertion of breast implants, under a simple local anaesthetic, they said    His alleged victims have complained of chronic pain and infections.

Several have had to undergo reparatory surgery.

Maure, who claimed to be the “victim of a plot,” was in 2007 struck off France’s medical register.

2008 Copyright AFP • • 2008-08-19 08:55:42

Five people remained in critical condition in hospital Monday after a bus crash on the AP-7 highway in Castellon on Sunday that killed eight people and injured 45.

The bus was travelling to Barcelona when a tyre apparently blew out, causing the vehicle to veer off the road and overturn, scattering passengers and their belongings across the highway near the beach resort of Oropesa del Mar.

Most of the passengers were Moroccan nationals resident in Spain, who were returning from summer vacations in North Africa.

Authorities said that six of the dead are Moroccans, aged between eight and 60, while the other two are a Spanish woman and the driver of the bus, who had apparently gotten aboard in Murcia.

“After the drivers changed, we could hear a strange noise. I thought it was the suspension, but it turned out to be the wheel. When it happened we were all sleeping. We heard a loud bang and I realized we had come off the road. Then I saw dead people… it was horrendous,” said one Moroccan passenger.

Most of the passengers were treated in nearby hospitals before being allowed to continue their journeys.

[El Pais / Expatica]

Britain’s Foreign Office on Monday warned tourists travelling to Spain to be “vigilant” after two small bombs exploded in beach resorts on the Costa del Sol at the weekend.

“There is a high threat from terrorism in Spain,” the Foreign Office said on its website. “Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers.

The Spanish authorities are fully aware of the impact of terrorism and are taking measures to protect visitors, but you should be vigilant. Disruptions from real or hoax terror attempts can be expected.”

Evacuation
The warning came after British and other foreign holidaymakers were evacuated from a beach near the Tryp Guadalmar Hotel in Malaga city and from a marina in the nearby resort of Benalmádena on Sunday following bomb threats by Basque terrorist group ETA.

Two devices subsequently exploded, without causing injuries, while a third, planted on a road leading to Malaga airport, was defused by police. The incident caused delays at Malaga airport and lengthy traffic jams around the city at the end of a bank holiday weekend.

The Costa del Sol has been targeted in the past by ETA as part of a summer terror campaign aimed at damaging Spain’s tourism industry that the group has carried out with varying degrees of intensity since 1979.

Around 17 million British tourists visit Spain each year, mostly for the country’s Mediterranean beaches, and few have been deterred by the attacks.

“[ETA] just want to annoy people, they always do the same thing summer after summer, but it isn’t going to stop people getting on with their lives, nor are they going to stop going on vacation,” noted one Malaga resident after the attacks on Sunday.

[El Pais / A Eatwell / Expatica]

A slogan ‘Más guapo con camiseta – More handsome with a shirt’ is being used during the ten days of feria celebrations. Bar owners say they will not serve men who are not wearing a shirt as it is not hygienic and gives a poor image of Málaga.