Madrid  - A judge at Spain's National Court on Thursday announced a new probe into the 2004 Madrid train bombings for which 21 people have already been handed prison sentences.

Judge Eloy Velasco accuses seven other people of helping the bombers financially, providing them with lodgings or helping them to escape.

The bombings of four commuter trains killed 191 and injured around 1,800 people in March 2004. Shortly after the massacre, several of the suspects blew themselves up in a flat in Leganes near Madrid.

Twenty-one people, including Islamist extremists, have been handed prison terms ranging from 3 to more than 40,000 years. (dpa)