Spain dismisses consul in Boston after bomb attack

Spain dismissed its consul in Boston today for failing to carry out his duties following the bombing in the US city's marathon that killed three people and wounded more than 170, a foreign ministry official said.

Spain dismissed its consul in Boston on Tuesday for failing to carry out his duties following the bombing in the US city's marathon that killed three people and wounded more than 170, a foreign ministry official said.

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Consul Pablo Sanchez-Teran "has been informed that he was dismissed for breach of his consular obligations", the official told AFP.

Spanish media reported that the consul was dismissed from his post because the Spanish consulate in Boston closed on Monday at its normal hour after the twin blasts at the Boston Marathon in which some 90 Spanish nationals were registered as participants.

The consul himself told Marca TV, a Spanish sports television channel, that the consulate closed its doors at its usual time, two hours afer the bombs went off. No Spaniards were among the injured.

"It was the closing time," he told the television station.

During his interview with the station, the consul did not provide any telephone number to give information to Spaniards affected by the bombings and suggested that anyone concerned about family members in the city call Boston hospitals directly, Marca TV said on its website.

"We would be much worse off under Inca, Aztec, Sioux and Apache civilisations, which have been idealised by historians and anthropologists, as it is well known that they had caste divisions and an imperial and bloodthirsty character," he said, according to the Spanish daily El Mundo.