Asenov Andrianov Andriyan

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Asenov Andrianov Andriyan was a 22-year-old Bulgarian citizen who had been living in Spain for four years. He was working as a builder’s labourer and usually commuted to work by bus. That day, however, he decided to take the suburban train. He was travelling with his fiancée Kalina Dimitrova, whom he was due to marry on 15 May. They were both killed in the attacks. Asenov’s sisters, Polia and Albena, had to wait two days before they were able to identify his body. They had helped the couple with their wedding preparations and decided to place their wedding outfits on their coffins.

11 March 2004 fell on a Thursday. Early that morning, a number of terrorists with links to Al-Qaeda planted thirteen bombs on four suburban trains covering routes running through Madrid. Ten of the bombs exploded between 7.37 and 7.39 am, when the trains were at Atocha, El Pozo and Santa Eugenia stations and alongside Calle Téllez. 191 people were killed in the attack and around 1,500 were wounded. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Spanish history. On 3 April 2004, agents from the Special Operations Group (GEO) were about to enter an apartment in Leganés where the perpetrators of the attacks were believed to be hiding when the terrorists detonated twenty kilograms of explosives in an act of collective suicide. The ensuing blast killed one of the officers, bringing the total number of people killed by the 11 March bombers to 192.

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