PARIS -- Bomb squads defused three explosive devices planted Friday 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, the prefecture in the southwestern Pyrenees Atlantiques region said.
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.
French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie's office said she had asked police to use all means to find those responsible "so they can be arrested and brought to trial with a view to punishment that she hopes will serve as an example."
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
