The belt is being analysed, a source close to the inquiry told AFP.
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Raids across the Belgian capital on Sunday capped a tense day with hundreds of troops patrolling the streets and authorities hunting suspected extremists, including Salah Abdeslam, a fugitive since being named as a key suspect in the Paris attacks.
An worldwide warrant has been issued for the 26-year-old’s arrest, and French police have warned that the French national is an “especially unsafe individual”.
French police issue a warrant for the arrest of Salah Abdeslam.
In its statement claiming responsibility for the attacks, ISIS referred to an attack in the 18th arrondissement, where the popular tourist spot of Montmartre is located.
According to French radio France Info, Abdeslam’s phone was traced to the Montrouge and Châtillon area in the hours following the attacks.
Abdeslam’s phone was detected later on November 13 by a mobile phone mast in Chatillon in the south of Paris, near Montrouge where the suspected explosive belt was dumped. Officers may not have been aware of his alleged involvement in the attacks at the time.
Soldiers and armed response police units flooded cordoned-off streets of the Belgian capital as security chiefs warned two IS terrorists were poised to launch a gun and bomb massacre.
Of around a dozen people suspected of playing a role in the attacks, seven blew themselves up: two at the Bataclan concert venue, three at the Stade de France stadium, one at a cafe on Boulevard Voltaire and one during a post-attacks police raid at an apartment in Saint-Denis, north of Paris.
“The thesis that he abandoned (the attack) is just coming from people who brought him back (to Belgium)”.
“I remind you that Salah has never been able to tell his side of the story to the police and that he is therefore presumed innocent”.
Officials said they arrested at least 21 suspects in 22 counter-terrorism raids late on Sunday and today.
The discovery of the suicide belt appears to fit with the chain of events that Paris police are working to.
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France and Belgium have both raised terror alert levels in the wake of the attacks.
