Rescuers pull second body from Madrid ETA bombsite

MADRID, Jan 6 (Reuters) Rescue workers pulled a second victim's body out of the rubble left after Basque separatists ETA set off a car bomb at Madrid airport a week ago, emergency services said today.

Rescuers found Diego Armando Estacio's car late on Thursday but it took more than 40 hours to get to the wreck as firemen tried to stop the rest of the ruined carpark from collapsing.

The huge car bomb shattered a nine-month peace process in the Basque Country and was the first time ETA had killed anybody since May 2003.

Since the attack, police have found stashes of explosives in the Basque Country, raising fears that ETA could strike again.

Both Estacio and Carlos Alonso Palate, whose body was found on Wednesday, were Ecuadorean immigrants. They were sleeping in their cars, waiting for family members to arrive at the airport, when the bomb went off.

Palate's corpse was flown to Ecuador in a Spanish military plane on Thursday. Estacio's body is expected to follow.

ETA had killed more than 800 people in its four decade campaign for a Basque homeland, carved out of northern Spain and southwest France, before declaring a ''permanent truce'' in March.

The group has not officially claimed responsibility for the Madrid bomb but one of the warning calls was made in ETA's name and the government has pinned the blame firmly on the group.

Reuters AB VV1620