Six suspected ETA members held in France

French police arrested six people suspected of belonging to Basque separatist group ETA today and found weapons and bomb-making…

French police arrested six people suspected of belonging to Basque separatist group ETA today and found weapons and bomb-making equipment in their flat in Bordeaux.

It was the second major operation in a week in police operations against suspected ETA hideouts in France.

Some 20 local police and anti-terrorism officers took part in the raids which began with the arrest of a Spanish man as he left an apartment block in the suburbs of Bordeaux on a bicycle, police said.

The man is suspected of heading a unit of ETA. Police then raided an apartment and arrested five people, including one woman, aged between 25 and 35.

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They found two guns, a home-made rocket and detonators in the flat. Searches in a second apartment in the suburbs of Bordeaux revealed nothing, police said.

The arrests came after a raid last weekend in which police discovered 600 kg (1,300 lb) of dynamite along with false car number plates, bomb-making equipment and documents linked to ETA at a flat in the town of Pau, on the edge of the Basque region.

That find was described by Spanish Interior Minister Mr Mariano Rajoy as probably one of the most important operations of recent years.