'ETA link' to Spain shooting

Police: "... indications that we could be dealing with a terrorist attack"

BARCELONA, Spain -- A policeman has been shot dead in Barcelona in an attack that officials say could be linked to the Basque separatist group, ETA.

Juan Miguel Gervilla Valladolid, 38, was shot on Wednesday morning after he approached two men in Spain's second-largest city.

The officer was directing traffic on a busy street when he saw two men pushing a red Fiat car. He walked up to them to ask for their identity papers and was shot in the head and chest by one of the men, officials said. The attackers fled on foot.

Police, who cordoned off the area, found a pressure cooker containing about 13 pounds of explosives in the car apparently intended for use in an assassination.

IN-DEPTH ETA: Violence in Spain   • ETA background   • Violence timeline   • Map: Violence   • Message board   • Recent stories     AUDIO Police technology aids investigation 364K/33 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

The car also had fake licence plates -- a technique often used by ETA when it uses a stolen vehicle, the Interior Ministry said.

"ETA wants to attack democracy and freedom in the Basque country and undermine the spirit of democracy and freedom that Spain has these days," Deputy Prime Minister Rodrigo Rato said.

The shooting came amid high tensions around Barcelona following the murder of a local politician last week in a car bomb attack and the shooting of a former socialist minister in the city in November, both of which were attributed to ETA.

ETA has been linked to 22 assassinations since January, making this year one of the bloodiest in the group's 32-year campaign for an independent Basque state.

The group typically targets military and political figures, but recently has singled out local politicians, many of whom have no bodyguards.

Many of this year's attacks have been outside ETA's base in the Basque Country in what authorities believe is an attempt to create a climate of fear and show it is capable of striking at will.

After Wednesday's shooting in Barcelona, several hundred people gathered in a square outside the Catalan regional government headquarters and observed five minutes of silence.

Ana Corron, a police officer who had worked with Gervilla Valladolid for the past two years, wept as she described him as down-to-earth and easy to get along with. "He was wonderful," she said.

"He was the kind of person you'd enjoy having coffee and a cigarette with."

A senior government official in Barcelona praised the slain officer for saving many other lives. The regional government suspended Christmas week activities, state radio reported.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.

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Spanish Government

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