Special units were deployed to conduct the operation, with the arrests occurring at a job centre.
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At least three of those arrests were foreign nationals.
“We had received a few tip-offs indicating that one of the individuals sought in connection with the events in Paris was in our jurisdiction”, a police official said at the time of the arrests.
The arrests were carried out in the town of Alsdorf, northeast of the city of Aachen, Deutsche Welle reports.
Abdeslam, for his part, was picked up in Paris overnight into Saturday by two men who then dropped him off in the Belgian capital Brussels, the Belga news agency quoted judicial sources as saying.
Salah Abdeslam was in Austria in September, telling police after arriving from Germany with two men that he was “on holiday”, Austrian authorities said today.
Police forces across Europe have been on a massive manhunt looking for 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam – a brother to one of the suicide bombers in Paris.
The French citizen living in Belgium allegedly hired a black Polo, registered in Belgium, which was found near the Bataclan concert venue in Paris, where three attackers killed 89 people.
New legislation – expected to propose quicker deportation for suspect foreigners and the possibility to strip double passport holders convicted of terrorism of their French nationality – is going to be presented to parliament on Thursday, Valls said.
According to French daily Le Monde, the voice heard in the Islamic State video claiming responsibility for Friday’s attacks in Paris may belong to Frenchman Fabien Clain, a jihadist who is known to French intelligence services.
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France and Russian Federation both staged air strikes on Islamic State targets in northern Syria on Tuesday (Wednesday NZT) as Paris formally requested European Union assistance in its fight against the group behind the carnage in Paris.
