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MADRID (Reuters) - Spaniards call it "our Sept. 11."

On March 11, 2004, 10 bombs exploded on four Madrid commuter trains, killing 191 people, wounding 1,900 and setting off a chain of events that dragged the country through mourning, outrage, huge street protests, an election, a change of government and the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq.

"We're all still a little bit affected," said Enrique Sanchez, one of the first ambulance drivers to arrive at Santa Eugenia station, where one of the trains was hit. "It's way too soon to be reliving all this.

"At the time when were treating all those injured people, we were crying. We couldn't believe what were seeing. I remember their faces, every one of them, but not their names because there was a deathly silence. The people had terror in their eyes."

The victims -- the survivors, the injured and relatives of the dead -- have told Spanish media they cannot bear to see the repeated video clips and still pictures of the trains that, as Sanchez told Reuters that day, were ripped open "like a can of tuna."

The March 11 Victims Association, which shamed politicians for taking advantage of the most devastating tragedy in modern Spanish history, has asked officials to cancel plans to ring church bells at 7:37 on the morning of the 11th to mark the first explosion. The plan still stands.

"That date scares us," said Laura, who lost the use of her legs in the attacks and spent nine months in hospital.

"I ask you (in the media) to treat the day in the most dignified manner possible," she told a forum on international terrorism last month. Her last name was not revealed to protect her privacy.

Another victim said she didn't even want to think about the anniversary.

"For six months I couldn't even watch television. I didn't want to see the faces of the killers," she said, asking to remain anonymous because of the nature of her ordeal.

Islamist militants -- mostly from Morocco and other North African countries -- claimed the attacks in the name of al Qaeda, saying they were in revenge for Spain sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.    Continued ...

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