The news came as three people were arrested in Brussels in connection with Tuesday’s attacks that left more than 30 people killed, BBC reported.
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“It will be decided tomorrow if an arrest warrant (charges) are brought against these people”, he added.
There are also reports in French and Belgian media that police suspect a second attacker may have been working with Khalid El Bakraoui in the attack on the metro station. There have been no arrests in the neighbourhood. Abrini, who is now on the run, is believed to be Abdeslam’s childhood friend, the Guardian reported.
In the wake of the suburban raids French President Francois Hollande said the Islamist militant network behind attacks in Paris and Brussels is being destroyed, but there remain other cells that continue to pose a threat.
The operation to arrest one of the suspects involved as many as 50 officers, including federal police, heavy weaponry and a bomb squad with an ordinance disposal robot, according to witnesses.
As Belgium begins the last of three official days of mourning, investigators are still searching for other potential attackers and accomplices. “We protect hope”, he wrote in light grey paint, one day after explosions at Brussels Airport’s departure terminal and a central subway station killed 31 people and injured 270 in the home of the European Union’s main institutions.
Officials told The Associated Press that the suspect, Reda Kriket, 34, had a past Belgian terrorism conviction and was linked to the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
Justice Minister Koen Geens and Interior Minister Jan Jambon both turned in their resignations this week, but the prime minister declined their offers. Prime Minister Charles Michel refused to let them quit.
Turkey also announced this week that it had warned Belgium a year ago that one of the Brussels attackers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, had been flagged as a “foreign terrorist fighter”. His lawyer, who had initially vowed to fight extradition, said Abdeslam now wants to be sent to France as soon as possible.
His brother was one of two suicide bombers who died the attack at Brussels Airport. “If he closes up again, we will be facing more cases like Zaventem and the Bataclan”, he told the radio, referring to Brussels airport hit Tuesday and the Paris concert hall struck by jihadists on November 13.
“Even if one couldn’t prevent these (Brussels) attacks, one can say that their magnitude could have been much bigger if the terrorists had been able to implement their original plan and not opted for easier targets”, said the police source.
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Eyewitnesses said they saw police shoot a man carrying a machine gun who had emerged from an underpass.
