It did bring to mind the threat to France's rail system that was in the news recently.
European Leaders Condemn Spain Bombing
By ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Writer
LONDON - European leaders condemned Thursday's bombings that killed scores of Madrid commuters as an attack on Spanish democracy.
Spanish officials blamed the Basque separatist group ETA, but the leader of an outlawed Basque party denied the organization was involved.
"It is an outrageous, unjustified and unjustifiable attack on the Spanish people and Spanish democracy," European Parliament President Pat Cox said in the legislature in Strasbourg, France.
"There is a general election due in Spain on Sunday. What happened today is a declaration of war on democracy," he said.
"Let Sunday show that Spanish democracy is determined to overcome terrorism," Cox said.
European Commission President Romano Prodi called the attacks "ferocious and senseless"
"This is not a political act, it is criminal act against defenseless people ... a perverse act of terrorists," Prodi said.
In Dublin, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who holds the EU presidency, said the "timing of the bombings was clearly designed to wreak the greatest level of havoc ... and cannot be justified by any political cause."
"This terrible attack underlines the threat that we all continue to face from terrorism in many countries and why we all must work together internationally to safeguard our peoples against such attacks, and defeat terrorism," British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) said.
President Bush called Aznar to express solidarity and sympathy, condemning "this vicious attack of terrorism in the strongest possible terms," National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Aznar supported Bush in the war against Iraq despite opposition in Spain.
Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi denounced the "abominable violence that wounds every principle of civil existence" but said they would reinforce Europe's commitment to unite to combat terrorism.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer expressed his horror.
"These despicable terror acts that have claimed so many victims fill us with deep sadness and outrage," Fischer said in Berlin.
In Copenhagen, the Danish government "expressed its deepest sympathy to the victims, their families and to the people of Spain," said Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, who added "his condemnation of such acts of terror."
French President Jacques Chirac wrote to Spanish Premier Jose Maria Aznar, condemning these "terrible attacks against Madrid's rail network that have plunged Spain into mourning."
"In these horrifying circumstances, I extend in my name and in the name of the French people, my most sincere condolences," Chirac wrote.
Pope John Paul II called the attacks "abominable."
"The Holy Father reiterates his firm and absolute disapproval of such actions that offend God, violate the fundamental right to life and undermine peaceful coexistence," said the message sent from the Vatican to Spanish Church authorities.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer condemned "this mindless act of cruelty and barbarism."
Chilean President Ricardo Lagos said he was "shocked" by the bombings.
"This is an attack on people who work, on young people going to school to study, an attack on all human beings that has no justification whatsoever," Lagos said.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed condolences to the families of the victims in a message conveyed Japan's Embassy in Madrid.
HENDAYE, France - Border police tightened security Thursday between France and Spain following train bombings in Madrid that killed more than 170 people and wounded hundreds of others.
Police stopped people on foot and searched cars and other vehicles, creating traffic jams at several checkpoints between the two countries, including Hendaye and Behobie. At the Biriatou border crossing, heavy trucks were stopped for security checks.
The French Basque region has long been a haven for militant Spanish Basques, although it has largely been spared the violence that has scarred the Spanish Basque provinces, just across the border.
President Jacques Chirac condemned the Madrid attacks and pledged "solidarity with Spain in fighting against this abominable scourge."
"Nothing ever justifies barbarity. Democracies must be — and will be — united in combatting this without weakness," Chirac said.
Cooperation between the two countries has been stepped up in the last few years, and French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in a message of sympathy that France will "contribute to strengthening increasingly tight cooperation with the kingdom of Spain."
More than 130 Basque militants are being held in French prisons — half of them convicted of terror-related crimes and the rest awaiting trial, according to judicial officials.
Spanish officials blamed Thursday's bombings on the Basque separatist group ETA. But the leader of an outlawed Basque party linked to the group denied the attack was the work of ETA.
France has arrested numerous Spanish ETA members hiding out in the French Basque region, located in the southwest near the Pyrenees Mountains.
ETA is also known to have used France to supply its network with explosives. It allegedly joined up with the Breton Revolutionary Army, a tiny separatist movement in Brittany in western France, to steal eight tons of dynamite from a warehouse in 1999. Some of the explosives are thought to have been used in attacks by ETA and the Breton group.