Dec. 1 (UPI) — Spanish officials confirmed on Thursday that a letter bomb, like the one that exploded at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid on Wednesday, was sent to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Nov. 24 before it was intercepted.
Spain’s Interior Ministry said the letter bomb delivered to Sanchez was “similar in its characteristics and content” to the one received by the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid.
The letter bomb sent to the presidential Moncloa palace was identified as suspicious upon its arrival, sparking a call for a bomb squad. The discovery led to increased security at public buildings and postal checks.
“Officers from both the Policia Nacional and the Guardia Civil went to the base to seal off the area and police investigators are analyzing the envelope, which was addressed to the satellite center,” a spokesman for Spain’s Interior Ministry said.
An employee at the Ukrainian embassy sustained non-life-threatening injuries when a letter bomb exploded upon inspection on Wednesday. Mercedes Gonzales, the Spanish government’s representative for Madrid, said the explosion caused “a very small wound on the ring finger of the right hand” of the victim.
Officials also identified letter bombs sent to the company Instalaza in Zaragoza and by the Torrejón Air Base.”
Instalaza, a Spanish arms company, manufactures the grenade launchers that Spain has provided to Ukraine to defend itself during an ongoing invasion by Russia. That letter bomb on Wednesday was detonated by the police.
A fourth letter bomb sent to the Satellite Centre of Torrejón de Ardoz Air Base on Thursday was detected by security forces before it could do any damage.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday the nation has stepped up security measures around postal deliveries at all of its embassies.
