Two policemen killed in shooting

Two policemen were killed by gunfire in northern Spain yesterday when they tried to stop a vehicle, officials said, adding it was too soon to say who might be responsible. The officers were killed near Castejon in Navarre, a northern Spanish province claimed by guerrilla group ETA as part of a greater Basque homeland.

However, state radio said an organised crime group may have been behind the incident.

The two traffic policemen were shot when they pulled alongside a four-wheel-drive vehicle that had committed a traffic law violation, according to some news reports.

The vehicle was driven off after the shooting. One officer died on the spot and another on the way to hospital, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. "We can't venture any kind of theory (about who was responsible)," a spokesman for the Navarre regional government told Spanish National Radio. "We must wait for the security forces to do their work."

About 25 45mm bullet casings were found at the scene. A truck driver, one of the first people on the scene after the shooting, told state radio the police officers' car came to a stop next to an embankment. One police officer, the driver, was already dead while the other was still breathing, he said.

The last fatal attack by ETA was over a year ago, on May 30, 2003, when a bomb killed two police officers and seriously injured a third in an attack in Navarre.