French officer 'killed by Eta'

A French policeman has been shot dead near Paris after his patrol was fired upon by suspected Basque separatists. If confirmed, it would be the first killing of a French policeman by Eta.

Police officer Jean-Serge Nérin and his colleagues stopped a speeding car stolen from a BMW garage in the east Paris suburb of Dammarie-les-Lys. A police witness said at least one of the men spoke Basque.

It is thought between four and six suspects managed to escape despite the extensive search operation launched after the shoot-out. Spanish newspapers have reported that the only man arrested identified himself as a Basque Eta member.

The incident comes after the arrest of one of the senior leaders of the terrorist group last month. He was detained with two other Eta suspects in a joint French-Spanish operation in Normandy.

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero has blamed the killing on the Basque separatist group, stating that France had "paid a high price for its help against Eta".

There have been frequent arrests of Eta suspects in France, often in the south-west.
Eta is blamed for over 850 deaths in its 41-year campaign for independence for the Basque region, which lies on the border between France and Spain.

Recent attacks include the murder of two civil guards in Mallorca last year and the explosion of a car bomb in Madrid’s Barajas airport in 2006, which resulted in another two deaths.