The day of the Madrid train bombings – level 1

11-03-2004

It is March 11, 2004. It is morning. Many people are travelling by trains in Madrid. They are travelling to work or school.

At 7:37, bombs explode in one train. Soon after that, more bombs explode in three other trains. People are shocked. They don’t know what to do. There is smoke everywhere. People are crying.

Ambulances start to come to the trains very fast. Doctors are helping people who are alive.

The result of the explosions is horrible. 193 people are dead. 2,000 people are injured.

The police discover that men from North Africa are behind the attacks. The police arrest 21 terrorists. Some terrorists go to prison for 40 years.

Many people in Spain think that the attack can be for revenge. This is because Spanish soldiers fight in the war in Iraq.

Some months after the attacks, the Spanish government sends Spanish soldiers from Iraq back home.

Difficult words: explode (to break into many small pieces), ambulance (a special car which takes people to hospital), alive (not dead), result (the situation at the end of something), discover (to find new information), arrest (to take to a police station), revenge (to hit a person because the person hits you).

How did the Spanish government decide to send Spanish soldiers back home?

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