Tower honors victims of Madrid blasts

Spain paid tribute to victims of Europe’s worst Islamist terrorist attack with the unveiling of a towering glass monument etched with outpourings of grief for the 191 people who died in the Madrid train bombings three years ago.

Spaniards fell silent at the memorial site at the Atocha rail station in downtown Madrid and left candles and flowers at other spots around the capital to remember the attack on March 11, 2004, which also wounded more than 1,800 people.

King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, senior government officials and an invitation-only crowd of several hundred people listened to a lone cellist play “Song of the Birds,” a composition by Pablo Casals meant to be a call for peace.