A letter bomb, similar to the one that exploded at the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid on Wednesday, was sent last week to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, 1er December the country’s interior ministry.
A “envelope containing pyrotechnic material” addressed “to the President of the Government Pedro Sanchez” has been “detected and neutralized by the security services of the presidency of the government” the “November 24”, he said in a statement. This letter, sent by post, “and its contents are similar to those received on Wednesday at the Ukrainian Embassy and at the headquarters of the Instalaza company, in Zaragoza, and a fourth intercepted Thursday night at the Torrejón de Ardoz air base”continues the ministry.
On Wednesday, the head of the security service of the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid was slightly injured by the explosion of a letter bomb intended for the ambassador, Sergi Pohoreltsev, which led kyiv to order a reinforcement of measures security in all its diplomatic representations.
“The package contained a box, which aroused the suspicions of the commander, who decided to take it out, without anyone nearby, and open it”Sergi Pohoreltsev told the European Pravda news site. “After opening the box and hearing a click, he threw it away and then heard the explosion (…). Although he was not holding the box at the time of the explosion, the commander suffered injuries to his hands. »
Investigation for “terrorism”
Security measures have also been reinforced around other foreign representations in Spain, according to the Interior Ministry, which confirmed that it was itself the recipient of a parcel bomb. Justice announced on Wednesday the opening of a preliminary investigation into alleged facts of “terrorism”.
Since the explosion at the Ukrainian embassy, two other letters “suspicious” were therefore intercepted and destroyed. The first was Wednesday at the end of the day at the headquarters of the arms company Instalaza, in Zaragoza (North-East), which notably manufactures grenade launchers, of which the Spanish government has sent several copies to Ukraine to help it deal with the Russian offensive launched on February 24. The second was discovered overnight from Wednesday to Thursday at the military base of Torrejón de Ardoz, near Madrid, which is used in particular for travel by members of the Spanish government.
“National police and Civil Guard personnel went to the base to secure the area and police investigators are analyzing this envelope which was addressed to the European Union Satellite Center”, says the Ministry of the Interior. In both cases, demining units carried out controlled explosions.