Three Moroccans and two Indians arrested in connection with the deadly train bombings in Madrid were being questioned by Spanish authorities as the country prepared for general elections on Sunday.
 

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The five were apprehended in the capital late on Saturday as investigators followed up clues gleaned from a bag containing an unexploded bomb from one of the sites of the attacks.

Their arrests came the day Spain held funeral services for some of the 200 people killed in the blasts. Another 1,500 were wounded.

Two Spaniards were also being questioned but had not been arrested, said Interior Minister Angel Acebes on Saturday.

The minister, who had previously declared the Basque separatist group ETA was the government's prime suspect, refused to say whether the arrests pointed more towards involvement by Islamic extremists.

"We must not discount anything," he said.

Whatever information the suspects may yield could prove crucial to the outcome of the elections.

The ruling conservative Popular Party (PP), which is seeking a third term in part on the strength of its hardline stance against ETA, has been unsettled by accusations by some relatives of Thursday's victims and many voters that it was dismissing several clues pointing more to involvement by Islamic radicals, possibly even Al-Qaeda.

AFP