Belgian police arrested five more people searching for those behind the 13 November attacks in Paris, bringing the total arrested since last night to 21. There have been numerous reported sightings of the man, including suggestions he has been heading towards the German border.
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Brussels remains in the grip of its highest terror alert for a third straight day.
Many shops and cafes closed, as did most museums and the city’s metro service.
The rest of Belgium was at security threat Level 3, which means an attack is “possible and likely”.
“We are concerned about an attack similar to the one that was carried out in Paris involving several individuals and maybe targeting attacks on several sites simultaneously”, Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel said Sunday.
The BBC reports that police fired two shots at a vehicle that rushed them in Molenbeek, injuring one suspect who was later arrested.
Interior Minister Jan Jambon said Abdeslam was not the only security threat: “It is a threat that goes beyond just that one person”, he said.
Belgium will keep Brussels under lockdown for another day because of an imminent terror threat.
In Paris, Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron accompanied French President Francois Hollande in a visit to the Bataclan concert hall, where 90 people died in by far the bloodiest of the string of attacks claimed by the Islamic State group. No explosives or firearms were recovered in the arrests, prosecutors say, and fugitive Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in the Paris attacks, was not among those arrested.
Mr. Jambon said authorities were also still looking for members of the suspected militant cell linked to a Brussels plot and their accomplices.
Brussels, the Belgian capital where several of the Paris terrorists had connections, is on a heightened state of alert since the French attacks.
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Another alleged ringleader of the Paris attacks, 28-year-old Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was a Belgian of Moroccan origin. There are several suspects, which is why we have put so many resources in place.Authorities in Brussels have released few details about their ongoing investigation. “We realize that these measures will complicate economic and professional life…and we are doing everything we can to return to normality as soon as possible”. Soldiers and law enforcement personnel are now patrolling the streets of Brussels, and the city’s metro system, shopping centers, theaters, arenas, and other public venues have all been closed.
