French police make eight ETA arrests

French police arrested at least eight people suspected of belonging to the outlawed Basque terror group ETA, picking them up today in three regions far from their traditional haunts.

They were held in the Limoges area of central France, and further north in the Sarthe and Maine-et-Loire regions, according to police.

Neither the identities nor the nationalities of those detained were revealed.

ETA, which has sought an independent state in northern Spain since the 1960s, has long used the Basque provinces of south-west France as a refuge.

Its campaign of bombings and shootings has claimed more than 800 lives.