MADRID: Four suspected members of Basque separatist group ETA were arrested in Portugal and France, including one who was driving a van loaded with explosives near a police barracks, the government said Sunday.
Two ETA suspects were captured in northern Portugal after one was stopped while driving the van through the northwestern Spanish town of Bermillo de Sayago, about 30 km east of the border with Portugal, regional Interior Ministry spokesman Miguel Angel Vicente told The Associated Press.
The ministry identified the suspects arrested in Portugal as Garikoitz Garcia Arrieta and Iratxe Yanez Ortiz de Barron. Several houses in Bermillo de Sayago, which has a population of 1,000, were evacuated and the area around the van was cordoned off, Vicente said. He did not give details about the quantity of explosives, but said the van was stopped in the town center, not far from a police barracks.
The ministry later confirmed in a statement the van contained 10 kg of explosives, a pistol, a revolver, a rifle and unspecified bomb-making material. ETA has targeted police buildings in the past, using car bombs in such attacks. The most recent case was in July when ETA acknowledged it had detonated 300 kg of explosives packed into a van parked near a Civil Guard barracks in the northern city of Burgos, injuring 60 people.
