Seven terrorists behind the Madrid train bombings a year ago were planning a wave of fresh attacks before they committed suicide, a judge told reporters on Thursday.

The terrorists killed themselves with bombs similar to the ones they used in the train bombings, said Olga Sanchez, who is in charge of the investigation into the most devastating attacks in modern Spanish history.

The seven blew themselves up in Madrid three weeks after the bombings when police raided their apartment. One of the dead, Serhane ben Abdelmajid Farkhet from Turkey, was the mastermind of the bombings, the judge said.

Police had arrested four suspects who directly participated in the attacks, but another five remain at large, said Sanchez.

Four crowded commuter trains were blasted in Madrid, killing 192 people and wounding more than 1,500 others on March 11, 2004. Militants linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were carried out to revenge Spain's troops presence in Iraq.

So far, the Spanish police have arrested about 70 suspects related to the bombings.

Source: Xinhua