<B>AT LEAST</B> 62 people were killed in explosions on packed rush-hour trains in Madrid yesterday in pre-election attacks that could be the worst ever by Basque separatist group ETA, officials said.

There was no claim of responsibility for the blasts just ahead of a Spanish national election on Sunday. But police said the explosions appeared to be the work of Basque separatist guerrillas ETA, listed by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organisation.

State radio, quoting judicial sources, said there were at least 85 dead in the near simultaneous attacks at three Madrid area stations.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said there were 62 dead, including 29 at the central Madrid station of Atocha, 18 at the southern Madrid station of El Pozo and 15 at Santa Eugenia. Emilio Benito, a spokesman for ambulance service Samur told state radio that around 250 people were injured in a single blast, at the Atocha train station in central Madrid.

Television pictures showed a commuter train with several holes blown in it at Atocha. The charred and bloodied remains of victims and the wounded were carried from the scene of the attacks by police, rescue workers and passersby. Basque separatist group ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna) has killed around 850 people since 1968 in its fight for Basque independence and has been a looming presence over the run-up to the Spanish elections.

If ETA is responsible, it would be the worst attack ever by the group, exceeding the 21 killed in a supermarket blast in Barcelona in 1987.

Last month, ETA declared a ceasefire limited to the northeastern region of Catalonia but made clear it would pursue the armed struggle in the rest of the country. Less than two weeks ago police arrested two suspected ETA members who were heading for Madrid with a van containing 500 kg of explosives, averting a possible massacre in the capital.

Daniel Trottav