French police launched a manhunt today after a suspected senior member of the armed Basque separatist group ETA escaped from custody in Bayonne in southwest France overnight.
Ivon Fernandez Iradi, who was arrested Thursday and was being held in the city's police station on suspicion of belonging to an ETA unit, managed to squeeze out through his cell's skylight, police said.
His "tall, thin" build helped him get through the unbarred window, used for ventilation, said one officer. Mr Fernandez Iradi then climbed the wall that surrounded the police station to freedom.
The officer said it was not immediately known if the fugitive had an accomplice waiting outside. Police immediately introduced special security arrangements, throwing up road blocks and introducing identity checks in the area, but hours later had still failed to re-capture him.
Spanish anti-terrorist police said at the time of his arrest that they suspected Fernandez Iradi of being ETA's logistics chief for commando operations.
He was to have been transferred to Paris today and put under the charge of a special French anti-terrorist brigade in the capital.
The suspect, also known under the alias "Susper", is accused of being a member of ETA's so-called "Buruntza" or "Donosti" cell and of seriously wounding a French police officer in November last year.
AFP