Spanish and French police arrested a long-sought leading member of the militant Basque separatist group ETA in a Paris suburb yesterday after a series of recent operations against the group.

Two ETA leaders were also arrested in late September in a joint operation with France.

The Spanish Interior Ministry said Egoitz Urrutikoetxea, who was detained in the Saint Denis suburb of northern Paris, was a prominent figure in ETA's political apparatus.

Urrutikoetxea, the fugitive son of a one-time prominent ETA leader known as Josu Ternera, has been sentenced by French courts twice for the crime of association with a terrorist group. His father, who was sentenced along with him in 2010, is still at large.

ETA was formed in the late 1950s during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco and aims to establish an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France. It has killed more than 800 people over several decades, according to the Spanish government.