After Pedro Sanchez, Defence Minister Margarita Robles and the Torrejón de Ardoz air base outside Madrid, an envelope with explosives was sent today to the embassy of the United States in Spain.
Yesterday, similar shipments were sent to a military hardware factory in Zaragoza and to the Ukrainian embassy.
In all cases, the characteristics of the brown envelopes containing the substances, as well as their contents, are similar: they had the same return address, written in pen and capital letters. As the Deputy Minister of State for Security, Rafael Peres, speaking from the Ministry of the Interior, pointed out this morning, the material is improvised, consisting of "explosive substances" similar to those used in fireworks.
"There are indications that the envelopes come from Spanish territory, but I say this with caution," he added. The envelope received at the Torrejón base was not detonated but managed to defuse itself, which "will facilitate investigations into its senders".
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In response to questions from reporters, the Deputy Minister of State for Security said that the events that occurred "are not significant enough for us to rise to the level of a terrorist alert."
[BR][BR]The envelope to Pedro Sánchez
Earlier today, Spain's police informed the National Court of Justice that an envelope containing pyrotechnic material was sent to the President of the Government, which was found a week ago and neutralized by the security services of the Presidency of the Government.
The services of the Security Department of the Presidency of the Government, as part of their mail screening and filtering duties, identified a suspicious mail item on November 24. It was an envelope addressed to Sanchez, which had been sent by ordinary mail, the Ministry of the Interior said in a statement.
Meanwhile, a letter containing explosives arrived at the Ministry of Defence today, while law enforcement forces in Spain also found an explosive device hidden in a package sent by mail to the Torrejon de Ardoth air base outside Madrid, El Mundo newspaper reported.
Two bombs hidden in letters were found yesterday, Wednesday, at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid and at an arms factory in Zaragoza, in southern Spain.
A worker at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid was slightly injured in the letter-bomb blast, whose recipient was the ambassador, prompting Kiev to call for increased security at all its diplomatic missions.
"Police were informed around 13:00 (local time 14:00 GMT) of an explosion inside the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid. It occurred while an embassy employee was handling a letter," a police source pointed out.
"This employee was slightly injured and went to the hospital on his own," he added.
The employee, who was injured in the hand, has already been discharged from the hospital and has returned to work, Sherhi Pokhorelchev, the Ukrainian ambassador to Spain, noted later yesterday in an interview with Spanish state television.
"The police have launched an investigation," the police source noted, while the Spanish judiciary is also conducting a preliminary investigation into the incident, which may be linked to "terrorism."
When asked who he suspected of the act, Pokhorelchev implicitly blamed Russia. "We are well aware of the terrorist methods of the aggressor country," he noted, adding that "Russia's methods, its attacks force us to be ready for any incident, provocation or attack."
After the explosion of this booby-trapped letter, Kiev called for "enhanced security" in all its embassies.
Meanwhile also yesterday, before 19:00 (local time, 20:00 GMT), "a suspicious package was detected at the headquarters of the Instalaza arms production plant in Zaragoza".
Police pyrotechnics "caused a controlled explosion," a source in the Spanish Interior Ministry said.
"Investigators are examining the explosive device and are looking into whether there is a link between this incident and the one that occurred this morning at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid," the same source added."
Source: Proto Thema
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