MADRID -- Eight people, including four policemen, were injured in two bomb blasts in popular Spanish beach resorts on Tuesday, police said.

A first explosion at a hotel in the heart of the Mediterranean town of Alicante injured four people and just minutes later a second blast in the nearby resort of Benidorm injured four policeman, AFP reported.

The hotels had been evacuated minutes before the devices exploded around midday (1000 GMT) following an anonymous call to the Basque newspaper ***Gara*** by someone claiming to speak on behalf of the armed Basque separatist group ETA.

Basque separatists have killed more than 800 people in a violent campaign stretching over three decades in a bid to create an independent homeland in northern Spain.

The Alicante blast occurred just a short distance from the local offices of the ruling Popular Party of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.