Belgium nabs terror suspects
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Belgium has opened a terrorism probe linked to the attacks in Paris as police raided a neighbourhood in the capital Brussels and arrested several suspects.
The federal prosecutor’s office on Saturday said its counterparts in Paris had asked for help after a car with Belgian licence plates and rented in Belgium was found near a concert hall where scores of people were killed on Friday night.
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An anti-terrorism judge took up the case because two of the people killed in Paris were Belgians, the office said in a statement.
“The investigation is opened into a charge of terrorism and participation in the activities of a terrorist group,” the prosecutor’s office said.
“Several arrests were carried out at the end of the afternoon. The operations are still underway in the Molenbeek neighbourhood,” it added.
Prosecutors believe three teenagers were involved in the attacks.
Paris attacks at a glance
Attack sites: 6
Attackers: 8
Attackers killed by suicide bombs: 7
Attacker shot dead: 1
Explosions heard at Stade de France: 2
Total Death Toll: 129
Injured: more than 352, 99 in a critical condition
Soldiers deployed around the city: 1500
Capacity of Bataclan Hall: 1200
Seven “terrorists” were killed in attacks and a Syrian passport was found near one of the assailants, the French capital’s prosecutor says.
Prosecutor Francois Molins on Saturday said the attackers had worked in three teams, striking seven times in quick succession on Friday night.
“A Syrian passport in the name of a person born in Syria in September 1990 was found near a suicide bomber who blew himself up at the Stade de France (stadium),” Molins told a press conference.
A Greek government minister said earlier on Saturday that the name on a Syrian passport found at the site of one of the attacks was that of an asylum seeker who registered on a Greek island in October.
AFP, AAP