Basque Separatist Accused of Killing French Policeman

A French police officer is dead after a shootout between police and suspected Basque separatists near Paris Tuesday night.

The 52 year-old officer was gunned down when his patrol stopped a speeding vehicle near a garage in Dammarie-les-lys. Police officer Samuel Roulle said that the shots were fired from a second vehicle, stolen from nearby.

According to investigators, one man was arrested following the shootout while the rest remain at large.

[Samuel Roulle, Police Officer]:

„The facts that we’ve established so far are that they were robbing a car lot, they’d taken a car. A police patrol arrived and tried to stop the car and ask for documents. Then a second car arrived, they must have been accomplices. Then they opened fire on the police patrol and our colleague Jean-Serge.“

The Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero condemned the murder and expressed his sympathies.

[Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spanish Prime Minister]:

„I want to express my deepest condolences to the family of the policeman killed yesterday by a member of the terrorist group ETA in France near Paris. I also extend my condolences to the French police that is so cooperative in the fight against ETA.“

If ETA is confirmed responsible for the shooting, it would be the first time the separatist group has killed a French law enforcement official.

Foto: NTDTV