Basque terrorists yesterday murdered a member of the autonomous Basque police force in a booby-trapped car-bomb attack, in which a second officer was injured. Mr Inaki Totorika (25), who only joined the force recently, is the 10th officer killed since 1982.
The two policemen were lured into a trap shortly before midnight when an anonymous phone call reported incidents at a roundabout in Hernani, near San Sebastian. On arrival the officers found an overturned rubbish container and a car blocking the street.
As Mr Totorika approached the car exploded. He lost both legs in the blast and died shortly after being admitted to hospital. Three men were later detained, two of them near the phone box from which the call was made. Police also searched two apartments in Hernani and one in San Sebastian and seized arms and ammunition and a large quantity of files and information on ETA activity.
The Basque head of security said the three detainees were directly responsible for the attack, although their names had not appeared before on any police lists. The car was stolen by two men on Thursday. Its owner was rescued later, unharmed but bound to a tree.
Incidents of kale baroka (street struggle) have increased dramatically since 15 members of Haika, the youth wing of ETA, were arrested on charges of incitement to violence, ordered by the high-profile Spanish prosecutor, Mr Baltasar Garzon.
Even as silent protests for yesterday's bombing were taking place, gangs of young pro-ETA demonstrators caused damage in the streets of San Sebastian, Pamplona and Vitoria. Windows were smashed, buses stoned and a telephone repair van and a radio-outside broadcast vehicle were set on fire.
There are suggestions that the Hernani bombing was the result of a new collaboration between members of Haika and ETA itself, particularly as the phone call which lured the police to the car bomb reported kale baroka incidents.
Haika is considered a breeding ground for ETA terrorists. The group's spokesman, Mr Asier Tapia Zulaika, is under detention, after inflammatory pro-ETA remarks. "Garzon won't get away with this," he warned this week.
French police have arrested a member of the gang which seized 1 1/2 tonnes of dynamite from a mining store on Wednesday. Gregorio Vicario Setien, who is alleged to have taken part in two kidnappings and other terrorist attacks, was detained near Grenoble and identified by eyewitnesses.
Eight men held the manager of the explosives store and his family hostage before stealing the explosives, 20,000 detonators and 10 km of blasting wire and fuses.
The explosives haul is a serious setback in the fight against terrorism and has raised doubts about the security of mining installations in France. It is ETA's fourth dynamite robbery in France in the past two years. Shortly before he stepped down last month, the former interior minister, Mr Jaime Mayor Oreja, asked the French government to tighten controls.