Belgian media reported that authorities have arrested the man they believe was the third suspect in last week’s deadly attacks in Brussels, as an Algerian man was detained in Italy for providing false papers to the attackers.
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The federal prosecutor’s office said a warrant has been issued for a man only identified as Faycal C. He is wanted for “involvement in a terrorist group, terrorist killings and attempted terrorist killings”, the statement said.
Belgian media identified the suspect as Faycal Cheffou and said he was the man wearing a hat in the airport CCTV footage that showed three men pushing baggage trolleys bearing luggage, just before the attack.
His name was found in documents in a raid in an apartment near Brussels last October, including some documents with photos of some of the militants involved in the attacks in Paris and in Brussels and the aliases they used, the reports said.
Two other people were also arrested on terrorism charges in Belgium on Saturday. In addition, a man named as Abderamane A, who was taken into custody on Friday after he was shot by police at a Brussels tram stop is being held for at least 24 more hours.
The list of confirmed victims has continued to grow and includes Briton David Dixon, 50, who was originally from Hartlepool but was living in the Belgian capital.
Justin Shults, 30, and his wife Stephanie Shults, had not been seen since Tuesday.
“We so far have no tangible indication to suggest the two men have something to do with the Brussels attacks”, said a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office.
Organisers called off Sunday’s Belgian solidarity march after officials including the city’s mayor urged people to stay away in order to spare the over-taxed police force.
On Thursday police raided Brussels neighbourhoods in an operation the mayor said was linked to Tuesday’s attacks and to the arrest in the Paris suburbs of a man who may have been plotting a new attack in France. In a gesture of solidarity with Brussels on Saturday, the Lebanese capital Beirut – itself often the target of bombings – lit up one of its landmarks in the colours of the Belgian flag. The death toll is likely to rise because some body parts have still not been identified, officials said.
But, he said, “we invite the citizens not to have this demonstration”.
Heavily armed police swept into Brussels neighbourhoods Friday in operations linked to the attacks.
Moroccan-born Najim Laachraoui, 24, has been identified as one of the two airport suicide bombers and is believed to have been the bomb-maker for November’s attacks in Paris.
The airport, which handles 23.5 million passengers a year, said it would be Tuesday at the earliest before flights resumed. Signs of a large police operation remained visible on Saturday at the tram station in the city’s Schaerbeek district where a man was shot in the leg by police on Friday.
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“It’s traumatizing for the little one”, she said. No arms or explosives were found, prosecutors said. Those terrorists are tied to ISIS, the Islamist extremist group that has taken over swaths of Syria and Iraq while also staging attacks elsewhere around the world.
