‘We lost our fear’: the Basque terror group’s killing that made Spain say enough is enough

The Eta group's kidnap and murder of a young councillor in 1997 united a country in revulsion and the wounds are still open today

The place where it happened is out past the hotel, the roundabout, the pharmacy and the blocks of flats hung with washing and geraniums, out where the small Basque town of Lasarte-Oria gives way to a narrow road fringed with trees and ferns.

Today, little carries on the humid coastal air save for birdsong, the barking of a distant dog and the growl of a cultivator. But, 25 years ago this week, two shots from a .22 calibre Beretta pistol rang out beneath the trees and echoed across the length and breadth of Spain.