Three suspected ETA members arrested in France

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The three suspected ETA members. Photo EFE

French anti-terrorist police arrested three suspected members of the armed Basque group ETA in southern France on Thursday, two days after the group told the Spanish government it was ending a 15-month ceasefire.

Police said the arrests took place in Bagneres-de-Bigorre, a small town close to the southwestern city of Lourdes. They were armed at the time of their arrest but put up no resistance, the official said. The three suspected ETA members are Alaitz Areitio, Aitor Lorente and Igor Igartua.

The premises where the three people were arrested were searched by police and the suspects were to be transferred to the French capital later in the day, police said.

ETA said on Tuesday it was abandoning a ceasefire it had declared in March 2006. The government of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero started exploratory peace talks in mid-2006 but broke them off at the end of the year after ETA killed two people with a bomb at Madrid airport in December.