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(Adds background) By Sergio Perez MADRID, Dec 12 - Some 70,000 people were forced to
evacuate Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium minutes before
the end of a league match on Sunday after a bomb threat in the
name of ETA Basque separatist guerrillas. The decision to abandon the game against Real Sociedad three
minutes from time and evacuate the crowd was taken after Basque
newspaper Gara said it received a warning from a caller claiming
to represent ETA that there was a bomb in the ground. The caller said the bomb would explode at 9 p.m. (2000 GMT)
but there was no explosion and Real Madrid President Florentino
Perez said no bomb had been found. "Players and officials were given permission to enter the
changing rooms after police sniffer dogs had checked the area.
We hope that it was a false alarm and as far as I know nothing
has been found," Perez told TeleMadrid television station. Real Madrid's star-studded team, including Brazil's Ronaldo
and England's David Beckham, suddenly trooped off the pitch
without any explanation and then an announcement was made over
the public address system telling the crowd to leave the ground. ORDERLY EVACUATION Spectators left the stadium in an orderly way, clearing the
ground in less than 15 minutes. Hundreds streamed across the
pitch on their way to the exits. Outside, a few people could be seen in tears due to nerves
but emergency officials said no one had been treated for any
injury. An Interior Ministry spokesman could not immediately be
reached for comment. The match was abandoned with the score tied at 1-1. ETA has targeted the Bernabeu stadium before. In May 2002,
an ETA car bomb exploded nearby hours before a European
Champions League semi-final and 17 people were treated for shock
or slight injuries. ETA warned of that attack in a call to Gara. This week has seen a resurgence of violence by ETA after
months of relative inactivity. ETA set off bombs in seven cities
across Spain on Monday, slightly wounding five people on
Constitution Day, the day Spaniards celebrate unity. Three days before that, coordinated ETA bombings at five
Madrid service stations marked the first attack on the capital
in two years. The bombings showed ETA remained capable of high-profile
attacks despite more than 100 arrests this year including the
capture of the group's leader in France two months ago. ETA, Western Europe's most active armed militant group and
listed as terrorist by the European Union, has killed nearly 850
people since 1968 in a bombing and shooting campaign for Basque
independence from Spain and France.
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