Rescue workers were digging through the rubble at Barajas airport in Madrid yesterday in a desperate search to find two people missing after a huge bomb blast on Saturday.

The explosion, blamed on the Basque separatist group Eta, appeared to end a nine-month ceasefire that the terrorist group had described as permanent, and with it hopes for an end to the long and bloody conflict in the northern region of Spain.

Many in the Basque Country, even those who support greater autonomy from Madrid, were disappointed by the apparent resumption of violence. “You can’t do anything with these people,” said Ainara Zubiaur, 29, a self-described Basque nationalist. “We have lost the last good opportunity to solve this [conflict]”.

If confirmed, the deaths will be the first at the hands of Eta since May 2003. The two men, both from Ecuador, had been sleeping in separate cars in the airport parking lot where the car bomb exploded. They were apparently missed by police, who had evacuated the multistorey car park before the blast after telephone warnings.

Rescue workers were using heavy lifting equipment to sift through the twisted steel and concrete slabs but said it could take days to reach the area where the two men could lie.

Nineteen people were slightly injured in the blast, which appeared to be ETA’s first since declaring a “permanent ceasefire” in March 2006. The group has not claimed responsibility for the attack but one of the callers warning authorities of the bomb reportedly said he was speaking on its behalf.

There were, however, some tentative indications that a splinter group opposed to the peace process might have been responsible for the blast. The Spanish Interior Minister noted that Eta had not publicly declared an end to the truce before the attack, as it has on previous occasions. The group was also reported to have assured the Government that it was not about to break the truce during their preliminary contacts about two weeks ago.

Eta’s political wing, Batasuna, also appeared to be caught off-guard. It claimed to be unsure whether Eta had planted the bomb and pleaded for the peace process to continue.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Prime Minister, has suspended negotiations with Eta, calling the attack “the most useless and mistaken step the terrorists could have taken”.

Police said yesterday that the Renault Trafic van used in the attack and packed with up to 800kg of explosives had been stolen in the south of France three days before the blast.

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