Lucky break for Maltese student

Alison Navarro was thankful yesterday, apart from sorrowful.

For she has indeed been lucky not to have been injured in Thursday's terrorist attacks in Madrid. Every day she passes close to one of the three Madrid train stations rocked by the deadly blasts.

Fortunately on Thursday she was not in the vicinity when the terrorists hit.

"I used to take the metro and change at the station on a daily basis but recently I started taking the bus to work," she told The Times yesterday.

The 24-year-old Maltese woman from St Julians is studying Spanish and was at class when she was informed of the explosions by a relative who phoned her to enquire about her.

"Within seconds other students' mobile phones started ringing incessantly. However, there were so many people trying to phone that suddenly mobile lines went dead and remained so until after noon," she said.

The attacks happened shortly before 8 a.m. Four trains at three different stations along the southern part of Madrid's rail network were rocked by blasts.

"The first feeling was obviously shock. Everyone was numb because we could not understand how such a thing could happen. The trains that were hit connect suburbs with the city and those struck were the workers," she said.

Yesterday, the day after the tragedy, anger was still very much evident among the populace.

"All this does not make sense. It is not normal for the ETA to attack without notification. Everyone is confused because nobody knows what is going on," she said.

Ms Navarro has been in Madrid for the past six months. She said that while nobody she knew was injured in the attacks she had heard of quite a number of people who had a close brush.

"Some people lost the train which would have transported them to disaster; others had the day off," she said.

But too many people have been killed, she said.

Ms Navarro was last night among the thousands who attended nation-wide manifestations to protest against the killer bombs.

President Guido de Marco has sent a message of condolence to King Juan Carlos of Spain.

The government said it had accepted a "wish" expressed by the Irish presidency of the EU for three minutes of silence to be observed on Monday at noon in solidarity with the Spanish people.

In a message to the mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, Valletta mayor Paul Borg Olivier expressed solidarity with the families of the victims.

Alternattiva Demokratika and the student organisation PULSE condemned the attack.