Trade Union Buildings in four Northern Spanish towns were bombed and burnt on Wednesday (6 December) by commando-style groups believed by Spanish police to be connected with the Basque separatist movement.

The daylight attacks in the Basque industrial towns of Hernani, Tolosa, and Renteria were carried out by three groups of five gunmen. In Irun on the border with France, workers evacuated the Union office after an anonymous call only a few minutes before a bomb exploded. The bomb was planted by a lone operator.

Police spokesmen said that there was evidence that at least one attack was carried out by members of the Basque separatist movement E.T.A. (Basque Land and Liberty), the organisation that seeks to st up an independent Basque province in northern Spain.

Early last month, three youths stormed into the French Consulate in the north central town of Zaragoza, tied the Consul up inside and set off a bomb. Five days later the Consul, M. Roger Tur, died as a result of severe burning.

Following this attack, leaflets signed by the Marxist "Hammer and Sickle" group -- a group sympathetic to the Basque movement -- claimed they had carried out the raid on behalf of the Basques. Police believe that similar leftist groups could be responsible for Wednesday's attacks.

SYNOPSIS: The Basque industrial town of Tolosa in northern Spain, where on Wednesday five gunmen broke into this government-controlled Trade Union office. They forced union employees into a room, doused the building with petrol and set it on fire, Spanish Civil Guards arrived just in time to release the trapped staff. The gunmen escaped by car. This was only one of four raids on Wednesday by commando-style attackers. The union building in the nearby town of Hernani was also burnt out, but again the staff escaped injury.

In the northern port of Renteria, gunmen forced out union staff at gunpoint and ignited the petrol-soaked building with a bomb. The offices sustained only minor damage, and there were no injuries.

In Irun, on the Franco-Spanish border, another union office did not get off so lightly. Walls were blown out and rubble scattered by a bomb planted by a lone attacker. He telephoned a warning minutes before the bomb exploded, and the building was evacuated in time. Police believe that all the attacks were carried out by members or sympathisers of the Basque separatist movement, the organisation which wants to establish an Independent Basque State in Northern Spain.