BRUSSELS (AP) – Heavily armed police and soldiers patrolled key intersections and subways were closed in Belgium’s capital Saturday as the government warned of a threat of Paris-style attacks.
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“The advice for the population is to avoid places where a lot of people come together like shopping centres, concerts, events or public transport stations wherever possible” a spokesman for the government’s crisis centre said.
“Following our latest evaluation… the centre has raised its terror alert to level 4, signifying a very serious threat, for the Brussels region”, according to a statement from OCAM, part of the Belgium Interior Ministry.
Salah Abdeslam, is still on the run.
He escaped a raid on a terror cell in Belgium in January which killed two other Islamists but French officials said he was targeted in an operation in Paris on Wednesday. “The work of federal prosecutors is still going on”, he said, adding the government was assessing what extra security measures to take. One person who has not yet been identified has been charged. The death toll in Paris has reached 130 now.
The U.S. State Department advised Americans there to be cautious.
French national Salah Abdeslam, whose brother Brahim blew himself up in the French capital, remains at large and is the subject of an global arrest warrant.
By adhering to the security measures put in place by anti-terrorism experts, the citizens of Brussels will also be doing their part to help authorities investigate their intelligence by keeping the situation under control, and possibly even thwart any terror attacks that may be imminent.
At least two of the attackers were from Brussels. Belgian newspapers Het Laatste Nieuws and La Libre Belgique reported that Abdeslam had been seen in the Brussels neighborhood of Anderlecht on Thursday night, but police officials would not confirm those accounts.
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Turkey’s state-run news agency says authorities have detained three suspected Islamic State militants, including a 26-year-old Belgian of Moroccan descent. Six other raids took place in the city of Brussels, Jette, Uccle and Molenbeek-Saint-Jean at the homes of friends and family of Bilal Hafdi, one of the suicide bombers near the Stade de France.
