Explosives cache found in France, ETA suspected

French police found an explosives cache in a garage in the southeastern city of Grenoble and investigators suspect the Basque separatist group ETA may be involved.

French police found an explosives cache in a garage in the southeastern city of Grenoble on Sunday and investigators suspect the Basque separatist group ETA may be involved, a judicial source said on Monday.

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The source, an official in the anti-terrorism prosecutors’ office in Paris, said the cache contained 450 kg (992 lb) of ammonium nitrate and other explosive substances, as well as a modified water boiler that could be used to make a bomb.

The explosives were found by the owner of the garage.

The source said the array of materials found in the garage was similar to a discovery made in Cahors, in southwestern France, in 2007. That turned out to be a base for ETA.

The Basque separatist group has killed more than 800 people since the 1960s in its campaign to carve out an independent homeland from northern Spain and southwestern France.

The Spanish government says the arrests of leaders have reduced ETA to a relatively small number of fighters but the group still carries out bombings.