MEDIA REACTION: There were constant references to the September 11th terrorist attacks in the US yesterday as the Spanish press struggled to come to terms with the four train attacks in the centre of Madrid which left more than 180 people dead and over 1,000 injured.
Most of the Spanish newspapers referred to the attacks as 11-M (11th of March) and laid the blame for the bomb attacks squarely at the door of the Basque separatist group Eta. The leading Spanish daily, El Pais produced a special edition with the headline
"Eta's bloodbath in Madrid" printed above a picture of dead bodies lying on the ground beside the train.
In its editorial, simply entitled "11-M", El Pais discusses the similarities between 9/11 and the Madrid attacks.
"In the sick minds of the terrorists Madrid equals the twin towers: Madrid is the symbol of everything Eta fights against in the same way the Islamic fundamentalists felt about the New York towers being a symbol of capitalism and the American way of life," the editorial says.
"Any time anyone places Madrid at the centre of their political debate, either for or against, they should think of the dozens of madrilenos, nearly all adopted, who died this morning at the hands of a blind and absurd terrorism," the editorial concludes.
El Mundo's online edition led with pictures of the injured with the headline "Eta massacre in Madrid" running underneath.
ABC also produced a special edition of its paper today and led with the headline "Massacre in Madrid".
It too quotes Prime Minster Aznar as saying "Spain will not change its regime either because they kill or because they stop killing."
In a gesture for Spaniards living abroad many of Spain's major news websites, waived their normally subscription and allowed free access.
