(28 Sep 1995) French/Nat
French police have arrested three suspected Muslim militants after a gun battle, but a fourth - believed linked to a terror bombing campaign - escaped.
The arrests followed a dramatic manhunt in the Rhone River valley which involved around 300 officers backed by search dogs and helicopters.
The prime suspect was Khaled Kelkal, a 24-year-old Algerian whose fingerprints were found on a bomb that failed to explode on a high-speed train track August 26.
Truck after truckload of French gendarmes arrived in the Rhone Valley to hunt for the man authorities believe was responsible for the terror bombing campaign which has shaken the country.
The prime suspect is believed to be 24-year-old Khaled Kelkal, an Algerian whose fingerprints were found on a bomb discovered on a railroad track in August.
Up to 300 gendarmes backed by search dogs and helicopters were deployed in the search.
Heavily armed and wearing body armour, they scoured forests, farms and corn fields.
Police arrested three suspected Muslim militants after a gun battle Wednesday, but a fourth believed linked to a terrorist bombing campaign escaped.
Lucien Crozet was working nearby when firing began.
SOUNDBITE:
"I was working just opposite when they started shooting. I was in the field just opposite."
SUPER CAPTION: Lucien Crozet, Eye witness to shoot out
The shooting began after police stopped a car that the four were riding in for a routine identity check near Vaugneray, about 12 miles west of Lyons.
Officials believe the recent bombings in France in which seven people died and more than 100 were wounded were carried out by Algerian Muslim extremists angered by France's support of the military-installed government in Algeria.
An insurgency by militants seeking to establish an Islamic state in Algeria has killed more than 30-thousand people since elections were canceled in 1992. The extremist Armed Islamic Group has vowed to carry out terror attacks on French soil.
In the southern town of Carpentras north of Marseille, police said 15 Muslim militants were questioned during a dawn sweep of their homes, but did not specify whether any had been arrested.
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