Wrecked train carriage, after a bomb exploded as it approached Atocha Station in Madrid.
MADRID -- Spain's TV networks cleared their skeds Thursday to provide minute-by-minute coverage of the Madrid train bombings that killed more than 190 and injured some 1,500 during the morning rush hour.
Pubcaster RTVE, nationwide commercial broadcasters Antena 3 and Telecinco plus paybox feed CNN Plus devoted all their efforts to covering the 10 bomb blasts that ripped apart three trains in the Spanish capital.
As during Stateside coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, RTVE dropped commercial spots in deference to the events, the biggest terrorist attack in Western Europe. The commercial channels severely curtailed ad spots.
News anchors gave out the location of blood donor sites, directed relatives to hospitals and broadcast times of anti-terrorist protest marches planned for today. Internet sites struggled to update reports as the dead count spiraled throughout the day.
Spain's Fapae producers' org called for producers to cancel film shoots on Friday. These include "Rottweiler" by Brian Yuzna, Patricia Fereira's "Para que no olvides" and Eugenio Mira's "The Birthday."
Cinemas and theaters closed Thursday as a sign of mourning -- but they would have sold few tix as cinemagoers were glued to their TV screens.
And there will be little mood for glamour at the March 18 world preem in Madrid of Pedro Almodovar's latest pic and Cannes fest opener "Bad Education."
The government initially blamed the outrage on Basque separatist group ETA, which is fighting to carve out a separate country on the Spanish/French border. But it later admitted a possible connection to Islamic terror group Al Qaeda.
Whoever is responsible could have an impact on Spain's general election on Sunday, which, in turn, will affect the film industry.
If ETA is considered to blame, it makes it more likely that Jose Maria Aznar's ruling Partido Popular, which has adopted a hard line toward the Basque movement, will win. This will continue underfunding of the film sector.
However, if an Islamic group is behind the attacks, that would increase the chances for the socialist opposition, as many Spaniards were against the country's role in last year's war in Iraq.
Though the socialists have yet to reveal details of their film and TV policies, the last time they came to power, in 1982, they initiated a revolution in film funding, hiking subsidies for the industry.
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