Thousands of holidaymakers trying to reach Malaga Airport were caught in six-mile-long traffic jams as police closed the access road to the airport

Thousands of holidaymakers trying to reach Malaga Airport were caught in six-mile-long traffic jams as police closed the access road to the airport to search for an ETA bomb thought to have been planted along a nearby motorway. Tourists landing this afternoon were also prevented from leaving the airport as security services tried to locate the device. A spokesman for EasyJet said: "No-one can reach or leave the airport at the moment. "We haven't been asked to evacuate the airport at the moment but there's not many people to evacuate. "Everyone's pretty calm at the moment but there's no doubt this is going to cause travel chaos around Europe.
"We have a flight which is supposed to be leaving Malaga Airport for Gatwick at 4.50pm local time but it will have to be delayed. "Even if the passengers were here on time, which they're not going to be, there wouldn't be a flight crew. "The air crew and pilot are currently stuck in a hotel near to where the first bomb went off and they can't leave the building to get to the airport. Authorities received warnings of three devices planted across the southern coast, forming part of the Basque's separatist group's summer bombing campaign.Thousands of holidaymakers were evacuated shortly before the first bomb went off around 1pm local time by the Tryp Hotel in Guadalmar Beach near the popular tourist resort of Torremolinos.
An hour later police were forced to evacuate shops and a beach at Benalmadena Port - along with thousands more bathers at the nearby beaches of Malapesquera and Fuente de la Salud - after being alerted to a second bomb. Police said that more than 10,000 people had been evacuated from the yacht marina and three nearby beaches before the second bomb exploded. The bomb had been left near the harbour's underground car park.
Police are on alert for attacks in the Andalusia area of southern Spain after they arrested members of an Eta unit last month and found evidence that the group were planning attacks in the region. The group often set off mainly small bombs in Spanish resorts during the busy summer holiday season to target the tourist industry as part of its four-decade fight for an independent Basque homeland. Last month they detonated a small bomb in the sand near a bustling promenade in Torremolinos, also on the south coast. It followed four small explosions at holiday resorts on Spain's northern coast on July 20 which local authorities blamed on Basque separatists Eta.