Police defuse three bombs in French tourist towns

PARIS — Bomb squads defused three explosive devices today that were planted at tourist areas in France's southwest Basque region on the Atlantic coast, officials said.

Rescue services received an anonymous phone call before dawn, warning that bombs had been left at five tourist sites in the Basque region near France's border with Spain. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Basque separatist group ETA, however, has been fighting since 1968 for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France. But the group's bombs have generally targeted the Basque region in Spain, not France.

About 1,200 people were evacuated from the sites — the casino in Biarritz, a hotel in Bidarray, vacation villages in Arcangues and Anglet, and a high-speed train route between the towns of Ondres and Boucau.

A search turned up three explosive devices, the prefecture said. Bomb squads defused one at the vacation village in Arcangues and another targeting the rail line in Ondres. Another bomb was found at a site not mentioned by the caller — Arcangues' tourism office. It was defused as well.

The prefecture said police did not find two other devices mentioned by the caller and that authorities would remain cautious until they determined all the bombs had been found.