MENDE, France (AFP) — Two suspected members of Basque separatist group ETA were arrested Wednesday over the weekend shooting of two Spanish policemen in southwest France, hours after the second officer died in hospital of his injuries.
The pair, a man and a woman, were carrying large amounts of cash and loaded guns but did not resist arrest at a bus stop in the remote village of Chateauneuf de Randon, a source close to the probe said.
Police had spotted the couple in the southern city of Rodez, tailing them as they went by taxi northwest to Mende, some 100 kilometres (65 miles) away, where they spent Tuesday night in a hotel before heading, again by taxi, to Chateauneuf, 30 kilometres (20 miles) further on.
"It was the couple the police had been hunting for three days," the source said.
They were transferred to Paris late Wednesday, investigators said.
The pair "have acknowledged to French police that they are two of the three authors of the attack carried out last weekend," Spain's Cadena Ser radio reported.
The man has been identified as Asier Benga Lopez de Armetia while the woman was named as Saioa Sanchez Iturregi, one of the most wanted ETA members.
Spanish media had originally identified the woman, who was carrying fake ID papers at the time of her arrest, as Amaia Alonso.
Spain's top investigating judge, Baltasar Garzon, issued an arrest warrant against her in July for allegedly belonging to an ETA cell called "Larrano" that was planning to carry out attacks in Spain's northern Cantabria region.
Iturregi's photo was plastered across Spain in wanted posters in August along with those of five other suspected ETA members.
She had changed the colour of her hair from blonde to dark brown, Cadena Ser reported.
The Spanish civil guards were gunned down Saturday by three people in the town of Capbreton, where they were working on a joint anti-ETA operation with French police.
Civil guard Raul Centeno, 24, was killed immediately by a bullet to the head. A Paris prosecutor Wednesday announced the death of the second officer, Fernando Trapero, 23, who had been in a deep coma since the attack.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero visited the wounded officer in hospital in the French city of Bayonne on Tuesday.
Learning of his death during an official trip to Italy, Zapatero said: "I express my deepest condolences to the family, with whom I had the opportunity to be with in Bayonne."
Zapatero congratulated French and Spanish police on the arrests, saying they resulted from "huge efforts" and "permanent coordination" between the two countries. He said he hoped a third suspect would quickly be traced.
"These arrests are a fine example of a response by a democratic, law-abiding state. This is the fate of ETA members, this is what awaits them," Zapatero told a joint press conference with his Italian counterpart Romano Prodi in Naples.
The suspects made their escape in a hijacked car after Saturday's shooting, said by officials to have been the result of a "chance encounter" with the two policemen.
Some 1,500 French gendarmes including elite SWAT teams were deployed across the country to track them down, monitoring train stations, borders and suspected ETA hiding places.
ETA seeks independence for the Basque Country which covers parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. It has killed more than 800 people, including nearly 200 police, in some four decades.
According to the French expert Jean Chalvidant, the organisation now counts some 300 members, most of them based in France.
If confirmed to be the work of ETA, Capbreton would be the first deadly attack by the group since a bombing at a Madrid airport car park in December 2006 killed two people.
Thousands protested in Madrid on Tuesday against ETA violence following an appeal by Spain's political parties.
Zapatero, who halted a peace process with ETA after it staged the bombing at Madrid airport, on Wednesday repeated his refusal to renew dialogue with the group.
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