Top Eta suspect seized in Paris

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One of the Spanish militant group Eta's top leaders has been arrested in Paris carrying a Magnum revolver and false ID, French and Spanish media report.

Ekaitz Sirvent Auzmendi was detained at Montparnasse station in Paris after getting off a high-speed train from Bordeaux, French police said.

Wanted by Spain since 2002, he is said to be one of Eta's top five leaders.

Eta is blamed for the deaths of more than 820 people in its 40-year campaign for an independent Basque nation.

Spanish police were present during the arrest in Paris, the French news agency AFP reports.

A laptop computer and a large quantity of computer equipment including USB keys and hard discs were also seized and Mr Auzmendi was found carrying false French and Spanish identity papers, the Spanish interior ministry told the Spanish news agency Efe.

He is believed to be Eta's top forger, it added.

Mr Auzmendi is the fifth member of Eta to be arrested this year in France, which also has an ethnically Basque region, in its south-west.