Abdeslam is one of three brothers suspected of involvement in the Paris attacks, one of whom – reportedly called Ibraham – died in the Bataclan and the other was arrested in Belgium.
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Salah Abdeslam was driving in the direction of the Belgian border when stopped and questioned by police a few hours after the Paris attacks, the source said.
Abdeslam is one of three Belgium-based brothers who are suspected of involvement in the attacks. It is thought to have been used by the gunmen who opened fire on a restaurant in central Paris on Friday evening.
In Belgium, an official said the seven people detained would hear later Sunday whether they would be held in custody longer.
Investigators are still searching for at least one other participant in the assaults that killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more at six sites in and around Paris. Meanwhile, refugees fleeing to the continent by the tens of thousands feared that the Paris attacks will prompt European Union nations to put up even more razor-wire border fences and other obstacles to their quest to start a new life. Seven people arrest in France were said to be relatives of Ismail Mostefai, one of the seven attackers who carried out Friday’s attacks.
The Home Secretary said: “Since the firearms attack that took place in 2008 in Mumbai, we have been building the capability of police here in the United Kingdom to respond to a multiple firearms attack and developing that capability – different training for the police and ensuring that they are able to respond quickly to such an event”.
The Salah brothers lived in Molenbeek, an impoverished section of Brussels that is mostly populated by immigrants from the Arab world and that has been linked to violence. He has vowed merciless revenge on ISIS, which France is already bombing in Iraq and Syria as part of the U.S-led coalition against the militant group. It seems now Abdeslam is believed to be the eighth attacker. Salah was allegedly directly involved in the attacks and is now on the run.
There has been an outpouring of support and solidarity in Paris, but large gatherings in the streets have not materialized, partly because the state of emergency prohibits them.
“We don’t know yet if this terror in fact is over or not”, he told CNN, highlighting the jitters caused by unsubstantiated rumors circulating on social media.
It comes as police named one of the attackers as French citizen Ismael Omar Mostefai, 29, who was apparently known to security services.
A source close to the inquiry said it remained unclear whether the person the passport was issued to was in fact one of the suicide bombers.
Prosecutors believe three teams of terrorists carried out the co-ordinated attacks.
The Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Paris’ public hospital system, said in a statement that “three of 80 injured people admitted Friday in absolute urgency in Parisian hospitals died”.
US officials say they are waiting for corroboration from DNA and fingerprint tests to help positively identify the attackers, something that will take a few time.
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This story corrects name of suspect to Abdelslam.
