Molenbeek police raids called off without finding prime suspect

Police carried out a major operation in Molenbeek on Monday morning in an attempt to find Salah Abdeslam, who is the subject of an international manhunt over the Paris terror attacks on Friday.

Belgian police told press assembled at the scene to stop broadcasting live images. Local residents were told to stay inside their homes.

Simon François, a journalist for RTBF, said: "We heard explosions, followed by federal police shouting orders over a megaphone. These instructions were then repeated. A man was ordered to stand at a window with his hands raised."

Sandor Zsiros, EU correspondent at Euronews, tweeted a photo that appeared to show a man being taken away by police following the Molenbeek raid. However, the Belgian federal prosecutor later said that no arrest was made and prime suspect Salah Abdeslam remains at large.

Mohamed Abdeslam, the brother of Salah, has been released without charge along with four others who were arrested at the weekend.

Mohamed's lawyer Nathalie Gallant told La Libre Belgique that her client "was able to prove he had a very solid alibi on Friday evening" - when co-ordinated attacks in the French capital killed 129 people and injured hundreds of others.

"The fact that my client has been freed without any charge proves that he has nothing to do with the Paris attacks," Gallant told the newspaper. "My client wants to return to work and get on with life in peace."

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Belgian man from Molenbeek in Brussels, was named by French and Belgian media as the likely mastermind behind the Paris terror attacks.

RTL said Abaaoud was already wanted by Belgium for his suspected role in a terror plot in the southern Belgian town of Verviers which was stopped by police in January.

De Standaard said Abaaoud, who is of Moroccan descent, is believed to have links with Brahim Abdeslam, who carried out one of the suicide bombings in the French capital.

Abaaoud was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison by a Brussels court in July, in a trial relating to jihadist recruitment of Belgians for fighting in Syria.

Le Nouvel Observateur in France said he had fought for Islamic State in Syria and appeared in a March 2014 video for the militant group. Libération newspaper said Abaaoud is also linked to the thwarted Thalys train attack in August.

Meanwhile, police were called out to a number of security scares in the Belgian capital on Monday, including a bomb alert near the European Commission headquarters and an anthrax scare in Etterbeek which both turned out to be a false alarm.

A suspect package was found on the Rue des Deux Eglises in Saint-Josse, near the European district and the headquarters of the cdH political party.

A security perimeter was set up and a robot mine-clearing device carried out a controlled explosion on a suitcase inside a car with French licence plates. Staff in nearby office blocks were ordered to stay inside.

In Etterbeek, the La Chasse junction was closed by police. Local mayor Vincent de Wolf told RTBF that the incident was an anthrax scare which was a false alarm. A suspect envelope had been found at the local police station.

A bus passenger was treated for shock on Sunday evening when a bullet hit the vehicle, smashing a window on either side. No one was injured in the incident in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert and the bus was only carrying the one passenger.

RTBF also reported that a 19-year-old man was arrested in Brussels on Sunday after walking around the city brandishing a fake gun.

Belgium raised its terror threat level from 2 to 3 on Saturday, but only in relation to large-scale public events such as sports fixtures and concerts.

Photo: De Standaard screengrab