Six people have been arrested in
a large police operation in Brussels, a Belgian prosecutor said
Thursday night, as two suspects in the deadly Brussels bombings remain
on the loose.
The six arrested
were detained for questioning, a Belgian prosecutor said in a
statement. The decision of whether to charge them is expected to be made
tomorrow.
Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon tweeted earlier in the evening that five people had been arrested.
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Several houses were searched in Brussels, Schaerbeek
and Jette, the prosecutor said. The police raids were conducted in
connection with the Brussels terror attack investigation.
News of the raid came shortly after raids in
northwest Paris foiled a planned attack, French Interior Minister
Bernard Cazeneuve said.
The French plot was at the "advanced stage" of
preparation and was discovered after a French national -- described as
being at a "high level" in the plot -- was arrested this morning,
Cazeneuve said.
There did not appear to be links "at this stage"
between the plot foiled in France and the Paris or Brussels attacks, he
added, saying the arrest is the result of weeks of investigation and the
individual was involved in a "terror network" that planned to strike.
The raids in Argenteuil, about 8 miles outside of the center of Paris, were ongoing and the streets were sealed off.
Investigators are actively seeking a second suspect
in the Brussels metro bombing who has been seen on surveillance camera
footage inside the subway station with suicide bomber Khalid
El-Bakraoui, a Belgian police source told ABC News.
That second suspect, who is unidentified, was spotted
on the subway platform at the Maelbeek station with El-Bakraoui,
according to police.
El-Bakraoui is thought to be dead after detonating a
bomb on the subway train as it was pulling out of the station. The
accomplice now being sought has yet to be identified, but police do not
believe he died in the Tuesday attack.
In the other attack at the city's international airport, Khalid El-Bakraoui’s brother, Ibrahim El-Bakraoui, was one of two alleged suicide bombers who led that attack.
Najim Laachraoui and a man wearing a light-colored
jacket, who has not yet been publicly identified by police, were with
Ibrahim El-Bakraoui at the airport, as seen on a surveillance camera
image released by authorities.
Laachraoui is believed to be dead after detonating
his suicide bomb, while the unnamed man has been the subject of a
manhunt since Tuesday's attacks, as Belgium lowered its threat level
today from the highest level, 4, to 3. Paul Van Tieghem, director of the
office that evaluates threats to the nation, said there is no
indication that another attack is imminent but the threat is still
serious and possible.
The first suspect that is being sought was
pictured on the airport surveillance footage. His identity remains
unknown, but he stood out in the photo because he was the only one of
the three suspects pictured not wearing a black jacket. As a result,
he's been widely referred to as the "man in white."
There
has been some speculation that the "man in white" was a handler or
supporter for Laachraoui and El-Bakraoui since he was not wearing a
glove on his left hand like they were, which may have been hiding a
trigger, and his bomb failed to detonate until after it was secured by
law enforcement.
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