Spanish car bomb blast injures two

MADRID, Spain -- Two people have been injured after a car bomb exploded in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao, state radio reported.

Witnesses said the blast sent Saturday shoppers scattering in a busy department store nearby.

The bomb went off at about 13:45 (1245 GMT) in the Gran Via street, the national news agency EFE said.

The explosion shattered the windows of many buildings in the area and a plume of black smoke wafted through the centre of the city.

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Acting on a warning, police cleared people out of the busy shopping district not far from the Guggenheim Museum before the blast.

Someone representing the Basque separatist group ETA called the radical left newspaper, Gara, warning of the impending attack in Bilbao, the largest Basque city on Spain's northern coast.

In the past ETA has published statements in Gara claiming responsibiltiy for specific attacks.

Since 1969, ETA has fought for a separate homeland in northern Spain and France.

Its attacks have killed at least 800 people and injured thousands more.