Salah Abdeslam, the main suspect in last year’s Paris attacks, has been wounded and arrested in a raid in Brussels, Belgian officials have said.
According to officials, Salah Abdeslam, who had been on the run since the November attacks, was wounded in the leg as police moved in on a flat in the Molenbeek area.
“We got him,” said Theo Francken, Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration.
Salah Abdeslam – one of Europe’s most wanted men – is a key suspect in the jihadist attacks in Paris which 130 people died.
Belgian PM Charles Michel had to urgently leave an EU-Turkey summit as details of the operation began to emerge.
The raid apparently continued late into the evening, as two more explosions were reported recently at the scene.
Salah Abdeslam’s fingerprints were found in a Brussels flat that was raided on March 15.
One man – identified as Algerian national Mohamed Belkaid and linked to the Paris attacks – was shot dead during the raid in the southern Forest suburb on March 15.
Officials said at the time they believed as many as two other suspects may have escaped.
Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French national born in Brussels, had lived in Molenbeek before the November 13 attacks.
He is believed to have returned to Belgium immediately after the attacks, in which his brother Brahim blew himself up.
In January, Belgian police said they may have found a bomb factory in the Schaerbeek district of Brussels used as a hideout by Salah Abdeslam.
Police found traces of explosives, three handmade belts and a fingerprint of the suspect.
Salah Abdeslam has been the subject of a massive manhunt since the attacks, claimed by ISIS militants.
Officials have identified most of the people they believe to have carried out the assaults.
Most of the suspects either died during the attacks or were killed in subsequent police raids.
Parts of Brussels were sealed off for days after the Paris massacre amid fears of a major incident. A number of suspected attackers lived in the Belgian capital.
Brussels police are hunting for suspects for a second day after a deadly anti-terror raid in the Belgian capital, linked to November’s jihadist attacks in Paris.
A man armed with a Kalashnikov was shot dead and four officers were wounded during March 15operation in the suburb of Forest, an official said.
The Belgian capital has since been on high alert, with police said to be searching for suspects who may have fled the raid.
The November attacks in Paris – involving militants from Brussels – left 130 people dead.
ISIS has said it carried out the attacks.
Photo AP
French police also took part in March 15 operation in Brussels. One of the officers wounded in the raid was a French policewoman, officials said.
Police went to search an apartment in the southern suburb of Forest on March 15.
“During this operation, one or several people opened fire on the police as they came through the door,” the federal prosecutor’s office said.
Three officers were injured then and a fourth in a later exchange of gunfire, it said.
“A suspect armed with a Kalashnikov” was also killed at around 18:00 in the street outside the flat, the prosecutors’ statement said.
The Associated Press news agency quotes prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt as saying that several people fled the scene when the gunshots first rang out, and it was not yet clear if all were bystanders, or if some were suspects.
Belgian media reports say police are searching for two more suspects after the raid.
The dead man has not yet been identified. However, a prosecutor’s spokesman had earlier made clear it was not Salah Abdeslam – one of two suspects still on the run after the November 13 attacks in Paris.
French police sources had said earlier that he was not the target of March 15 raid.
Belgium’s De Standaard newspaper quotes its sources as saying that investigators had been expecting to raid a safe house used in connection with the Paris attacks.
They had not expected the flat to be occupied, as its water and electricity had been disconnected for some time.
The operation brought life to a standstill in the area, close to railway lines used by high-speed trains to London and Paris.
Two local schools and two kindergartens were in lockdown for several hours before being evacuated by police.
The prosecutor’s office said the investigation is “actively continuing, day and night” but gave no other details.
Since the November 13 attacks, officials have identified most of the people they believe to have carried out the assaults.
Most of the suspects either died during the attacks or were killed in later police raids.
In addition, 11 people have been arrested and charged in Belgium in connection with the killings. Another eight are still in detention.
Parts of Brussels were sealed off for days after the Paris massacre amid fears of a major incident. A number of suspected attackers lived in the Belgian capital. Police have also carried out a series of raids in the city.
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