Spaniard, 21, held over Columbine copycat plot

Spanish police have arrested a man on suspicion that he planned to imitate the 1999 Columbine school killings in the US by planting bombs around a university campus.

Interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz yesterday praised the arrest, saying: “It appears a massacre has been averted.”

Police said they seized 140kg of bomb-making material when they arrested the 21-year-old in Palma de Mallorca on Wednesday. Officer said that in his diary and internet blog, the man – a Spaniard identified by his initials JMMS – talked of his admiration for the perpetrators of the Columbine attacks and how he planned to place several bombs around a campus in Palma.

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The statement said the man had openly expressed his hatred for society, and particularly students. A police spokesman said there was nothing to indicate that the man had planned to carry out the attack for any set ideological reasons.

Twelve students and one teacher were killed in the Columbine attack in Colorado. The two perpetrators then killed themselves. The Spanish man’s diary indicated he aimed to kill himself after his attack.

Spanish police said the man had tried to purchase guns, but finding this impossible opted to use bombs by buying explosives-making material on the internet to make shrapnel bombs.

The arrest took place just as the material was delivered to his house. Police said they had been watching the man for five months after messages referring to Columbine began appearing on internet pages in Spain.

Police said the suspect had studied electronics and had begun a course in business administration. He earned money by playing poker on the internet and had recently moved out of his family home into a flat.

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