Belgium’s government crisis center has raised the terrorism alert to its highest level, amid concerns that at least one suspect in the Paris attacks may be at large in Belgium.
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It was unclear who was arrested in Brussels Saturday, Belgian media reported.
Belgium’s capital was put on high alert Saturday morning, after the country’s government warned of an attack on Brussels in the wake of those in Paris last week. “Analysis shows a serious and imminent threat that requires taking specific security measures as well as specific recommendations for the public”. Service has been halted on the Brussels Metro, as well as on tramlines that run underground.
Turkish law enforcement uncovered a possible link with the arrest of three people including 26-year-old Belgian Ahmet Dahmani, who is suspected of scouting a few of the Paris attack sites. No further information about the arrest was released.
It also recommended that the 19 communes that make up the Brussels region consider cancelling all other major events due to take place.
“The threat is imminent, precise, we’re talking about possible attacks by several individuals, heavily armed, so obviously in parallel we are looking for one and more individuals with weapons, explosives”, Vice Prime Minister Dider Reynders said on Belgian television RTL.
“We are aware that Belgium has raised the terror alert level for Brussels”.
Salah Abdeslam, 26, is the subject of an global search warrant.
Officials stopped the auto at the border and questioned the men, but let them go. His whereabouts are unknown.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks. Salah Abdeslam, the brother of one of the suicide bombers, is still at large.
French President Francois Hollande is also going to Washington and Moscow next week to push for a stronger worldwide coalition against IS.
Officials in France and Belgium would not comment on Dahmani. Members of a suspected terrorist cell waged a deadly gunbattle in January with police in Belgium. He said any country “who wants to participate militarily is welcome”. He was killed during a raid Wednesday on an apartment in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, the AP said.
The terrorist who allegedly devised the Paris attack, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was from Brussels.
Abaaoud was once allegedly involved in gangs in Molenbeek.
The attorney for one of the accomplices said Abdeslam was wearing “a big jacket, maybe a bomb belt” and behaved nervously, making authorities suspect he had backed out of his murderous assignment in Paris.
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European Union interior and justice ministers in Brussels on Friday pledged solidarity with France and agreed a series of new measures on surveillance, border checks and gun control.
