Forty-six people were slightly injured Wednesday when a car bomb, planted by suspected members of the Basque separatist group ETA, exploded outside a police compound in northern Spain, officials said.

Investigators view damage to a Civil Guard barracks after a car bomb exploded in the northern Spanish city of Burgos, early July 29, 2009. At least 46 people were slightly injured, according to emergency services. Part of the barracks facade collapsed into the street when the bomb went off around 4.30 a.m. (0230 GMT). A spokeswoman for the Civil Guard, Spain's paramilitary police force, said the attack was probably carried out by Basque separatist rebels ETA.[Xinhua]

The blast, which occurred at around 4:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) in the city of Burgos, ripped away most of the outer wall of the 14-storey barracks, and gouged a crater that had been filled with water from broken underground pipes, an emergency services spokesman said.

He said 46 people, including women and children living in the barracks, were slightly injured, most suffering cuts and bruises.

A policeman walks past damaged vehicles near a Civil Guard barracks after a car bomb exploded in the northern Spanish city of Burgos, early July 29, 2009.[Xinhua]

The barracks had been evacuated and fire fighters were going through the building, the spokesman added.

Miguel Alejo, a regional ministry representative, told reporter at the scene that the explosion appeared to be an attack "like those that the ETA killers carry out."

The group usually gives advance warning of its attacks, but no warning was received this time, he said.

The ETA, listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, is blamed for the deaths of more than 800 people in its 40-year campaign to carve a Basque homeland out of northern Spain and southwestern France.