MADRID , Spain ( CNN ) -- A car bomb exploded Friday morning in Spain 's northern Basque region , killing a police officer inside the vehicle , officials said . Police investigate the vehicle destroyed by a car bomb in Spain 's Basque region . Spain 's Prime Minister blamed the attack on the Basque separatist group ETA , although there was no warning call before the explosion , as often happens in ETA attacks . The car exploded at 9:05 a.m. ( 3:05 a.m . ET ) in an open-air parking lot in the Basque town of Arrigorriaga and damaged five other cars . Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze , and police moved in to investigate . The Spanish national police officer killed was Eduardo Puelles , said the new Basque regional president , Patxi Lopez . `` ETA showed us the road to pain , '' Lopez said on national TV . `` We will show them the road to prison . '' The officer was a senior figure in the fight against ETA and the explosion was caused by a limpet bomb placed underneath the car , officials told CNN partner station CNN+ . A limpet bomb is one that is stuck to the underside of vehicle . Arrigorriaga is about 30 miles south of the largest Basque city of Bilbao . ETA 's last fatal victim was a businessman who was shot dead in the same region last December . `` My stance to stop ETA is unbreakable , so that people in the Basque country and Spain can live in peace , to halt this barbarity , '' said Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero , after the attack . ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths in its more than four decades of fighting for Basque independence . The European Union and the United States list it as a terrorist group . ETA has threatened Lopez , who is a socialist and the first non-nationalist Basque president in 30 years . He has also vowed to stop the group . There are about 600 ETA members or suspected members in Spanish jails and 150 others in French jails , authorities in both countries have told CNN .
Car bomb explodes in northern Spanish city of Madrid . Basque president : kills a national police officer named Eduardo Puelles . Spain : It was caused by a limpet bomb placed underneath the car . Events in Basque country at heart of long - running separatist conflict .