Posted on August 18, 2008 by Fiona Hilliard

Thousands of holidaymakers on their way to Malaga Airport were caught up in six-mile long traffic jams yesterday as police closed the access road to the airport to carry out a search for an ETA bomb believed to have been planted at a motorway in the vicinity. 

Tourists who touched down yesterday afternoon were also prevented from leaving the airport as security services tried to locate the device. 

Authorities received warnings of three devices planted across the southern coast, forming part of the Basque’s separatist group’s summer bombing campaign.

Police have tightened security in the whole Andalusia area of southern Spain after they arrested members of an Eta unit last month and found evidence that the group were planning a series of bomb blasts in the region.