Spanish police arrested seven people today for alleged links with armed Basque separatist group ETA and seized a large amount of explosives.
The suspects were arrested in Guipuzcoa province in the northern Basque region. Police found 50 kilogrammes of dynamite as well as detonators, false number plates and forged documents.
The seven people were detained on suspicion of collaborating with a three-man (ETA) commando unit.
The members of the commando unit - who themselves managed to escape - were responsible for placing car bombs across Spain, police sources said.
In August car bombs linked to the Basque group exploded at Madrid's Barajas airport and outside a hotel in the Mediterranean resort of Salou. In July, explosives experts defused a car bomb at Malaga airport in southern Spain.
Police in the Basque country were also searching for several individuals who abandoned a car near a police checkpoint and fled, a Civil Guard spokesman said. Bomb experts were checking the vehicle to see if it contained any explosives.
ETA has been blamed for 800 deaths since 1968 when it began a campaign for a separate Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France.